Save a Miracle for Me
by 1'm-A-gleeK
Summary: Quinn Fabray is broken beyond repair, but refuses to show it, let alone let anyone try to save the little of the blonde beauty left. Warning: Contains self-harm, eating disorders, child abuse, rape and other such things... Faberry :
1. William McKinley High School

**Note: Hey, I hope you enjoy this fic, it is set at the start of season 3 and will eventually be Faberry. Sorry for any mistakes or things which don't make sense- I am trying to improve my writing but it isn't going that well :L I hope you like this first chapter : )**

**Warnings: Contains self-harm, eating disorders, child abuse, rape and other such things...**

_**I do not own 'Glee' unfortunately!**_

Senior year, their end to McKinley, the end of the slushies and the constant terror, the end of glee club as they knew it- the end of the most memorable years of their lives. It all ended here…

Fall soon arrived and the kids of McKinley were back at school as teenagers across Lima groaned as they desperately searched for the snooze button on their alarm clocks. All pupils with the exception of one Rachel Berry. The brunette woke with a start as soon as her iPod began blasting out her wake-up playlist, a gleaming white smile beaming across her face. Yes, today it wasn't just first day back, today there was so much for her to enjoy with the highlight of her day being glee club. But Rachel wasn't the only glee member wide awake…

_A house several miles away…_

_Delicate pale fingers fiddled with the blade in her hand which she had plucked from her razor. Her hands weren't trembling, they never did as she brought it to the skin of the underside of her left forearm. She pressed down firmly drawing three straight horizontal lines of blood, each cut deeper than the last. The blood pooled as drips began making their way on to the tiles on her bathroom floor. She passed the blade from her right hand to her left as she repeated the action pressing even harder on her right arm before letting the blade drop from her tingling hand, allowing the blood and pain to flow._

After her morning rituals, Rachel was ready for school at precisely 7:36 ready to spend the next fourteen minutes walking to school in order to arrive for when the doors were opened to McKinley. The halls were practically empty as the petite teen clutched her bag as she raced towards the auditorium. Rachel passed the janitor, a few jocks, a group of Cheerios and Jacob down the main corridor, but now the only noise was the sound of her pumps as she near enough ran. Before long, Rachel had collected the key for the auditorium and was already working on her scales, playing the notes on the piano then echoing them with her voice to then progress to arpeggios and other such vocal exercises. She was certainly looking forward to returning to glee club today and a few slushies would definitely be worth it.

Soon others began to arrive at school; Sam pulled into the parking lot with Mercedes in his passenger seat, Finn was getting a lift from Kurt whilst the smaller boy tried to educate Finn about the songs blasting out of the radio, Tina and Mike walked through the doors hand in hand, Puck, Lauren and Artie entered together as Artie crossed paths with the couple and Brittany and Santana walked together like normal in virtual silence (since the Latina expressed her love for the bubbly blonde things were often awkward between them). That left one person- Quinn Fabray. The ex-cheerleader used to drive to school, but today she wandered slowly down the side walk expressionless, tugging at her sleeves all the way making sure no-one could see the girl who was hiding in a shallow person's skin. No, no one could know the truth.

Quinn appeared as a completely new person as she strolled into the high school. She had her head held high, smiling brightly greeting her peers as she passed them on the way to the notice board. She scanned through the sign-up sheets pinned up on the board, focusing on two- New Directions and Cheerios. Nope, no-one had signed up for glee club, possibly because it was barely visible as the endless sheets for Cheerios had been stacked up above it. She carefully wrote her name on the cheerleading list after checking that Santana and Brittany had signed up too ready for tomorrow.

Lessons went by slowly for everyone at William McKinley High School, but soon the bell rang signalling the end of the day for some and the start of glee club for others. Rachel walked into the choir room laughing with Finn to only find Brad and Mr Schuester already there. The rest of the club filed in a few minutes later and took pretty much the same seats as normal.

'Mr Schuester?', Rachel raised her hand as she began to stand, 'If I may, I would like to take this opportunity to inform the club of a song that I think would be perfect to showcase my natural talent and broad range as well as the idea of everyone taking part to try and get people to join. I have the sheet mu-'

'Blah, blah, blah,' Mercedes interrupted 'Do you ever shut up? I mean we have only been here for like three minutes and you are already making me need to go to counselling sessions.'

'Thank-you Rachel for your efforts and for mentioning the fact that we need to advertise the auditions for glee club and I have just the thing!' the Spanish teacher took control before things began to get out of hand. Quinn spoke up from her chair

'Oh please Mr Schue, we are never going to get anyone to join, glee club isn't cool, it's not popular- there's no use even pretending that it's because Coach Sylvester has hidden the sheet.'

'Wait what?' Mr Schue questioned.

'Anyway,' Quinn continued, 'we have enough people to allow us to compete even if someone drops out so I say we don't humiliate ourselves even further, however fun the performance may be.' The blonde trailed off towards the end, noticing that she had gotten into a Rachel Berry lecture. Mr Schuester watched the girl for a little while longer. Even though the passion was there in her voice, the usual fire in her eyes was missing. There still were flames burning but they appeared duller and lonely as if the fire was going to soon fizzle out.

'Thank-you for that Quinn, but we still are going to do this, and I have the perfect song- here pass these around.' Will gave a pile of lyric sheets to Sam who was sat on the end of the front row.

'I'm all for reviving songs from like the 80s or whatever, but Mr Schue, we can't work this and certainly can't perform it if we want to live.' Puck looked at the sheet in his hands.

'Well what do you guys suggest we do?' No one replied. 'Come on guys! Finn, you're joint captain- what do you suggest?'

'We could do our set list from Nationals, I mean, it will show what we really do and it' not like anyone was there so it will be completely new for them.' Finn hesitated.

'So do we have an agreement?' Most of the club nodded. 'Right we can rehearse in the auditorium and I'll try and organise some costumes!' The teacher clapped his hands together in satisfaction.

The club were dismissed after they made plans or rehearsal and the performance for the following day. The kids began to get up and leave and Mr Schue collected his laptop to book the auditorium out with a quick email to April Rhodes. When he returned everyone had gone except for Quinn who sat there staring vacantly at her phone.

'Hey, are you okay Quinn?' He walked over to the girl.

'Yeah, I'm fine.' Quinn was shaken out of her thoughts.

'Are you sure, 'cause if you ever want to talk about anythi-'

'Thanks Mr Shue, but I am okay, really.' She looked to Will who was now occupying the seat to her right. 'Umm, do you know if anyone is using the dance studios?'

'Err, I don't think so, I know that Rachel usually practices in them around this time, bu she headed in the other direction.'

'Thanks' Quinn put her cell phone in her bag before getting up and leaving.

'See you tomorrow' he smiled at her as she left.

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading this! I have some more written up, but please let me know if you want me to continue or not and what you thought of it, but it does take a little while to get started sorry. Thank-you Xx**


	2. Ballet Practice

**Note: Thank-you so much for your alerts, favourites and reviews, I was so happy. Therefore, I am slightly worried about what you will think of this next chapter as I don't want you to be disappointed :L However, if you didn't like it and have a suggestion of improvement please let me know. Thank-you again and I hope you like this chapter :D**

_**I don't own 'Glee' unfortunately!**_

Quinn was relieved to find all three studios empty, meaning that she was able to go into the largest room. She went into the changing room as she pulled out her leotard and tights, making sure she turned away from the mirror until she was dressed. She slipped her cardigan on and securely tied it after studying the scars running up her arms. She flicked through her iPod which she had plugged into the sound system to play her music for the barre. She was there for 45 minutes doing a rushed barre warm-up followed by stretching and centre exercises.

Her leotard was plain and black as was her cardigan, tights and pointe shoes. Quinn received the shoes as a gift a few years back and they finally fitted. The outfit made her feel unnoticed, like she was just a shadow, how she liked it. The girl was coming to the end of a dance she had choreographed herself earlier that year, but she had never been able to perfect it. She did a chassé into a pas de bourrée and a passing glissade as a build up for a gran jeté that took Rachel's breath away (who was now stood in the door way, unseen to Quinn). For a few moments she was suspended in the air in perfect splits before landing softly, a challenge in pointe shoes. Quinn entered the final part of her piece, completing numerous spotless fouettés en pointe. Rachel stood there, amazed at the beauty of Quinn's dance and of the girl. The ex-Cheerio had pinned back the two braids at the front of either side of her parting to keep it off of her face whilst she danced, allowing the rest of her hair to flow freely. Her hair had grown over the summer, allowing her to have layers like before, just shorter. Rachel admired her golden-blonde hair as the soft curls span around a few moments after the rest of her did. Greeny-hazel eyes glistened in the sunlight that was creeping in through the window. Quinn ended kneeling after a final double turn. The dancer stood up panting as she turned to change the music. This could not be happening… Rachel Berry was stood in the doorway.

'Wow, Quinn, that was amazing. How long have you been dancing?'

'Since I was three.' Quinn walked on towards the stereo and began flicking through her music on her iPod.

'How often do you dance?' Rachel, intrigued began walking closer to Quinn who didn't look up when she responded.

'I use to at least an hour each night at home- we converted the study into a dance studio. And then every weekend I would drive to Michigan. They have a big dance school in the south where I would go for lessons and I'd stay there over night.'

'Use to?'

Quinn nodded as she continued to flick through songs. 'I had to stop.'

'Why?'

'I was needed at home for things.' Quinn found the piece of music she was looking for as she grabbed the remote before putting it back down. 'Could you press play for me?'

'Sure, just tell me when.' Rachel, smiling walked over to the stereo. 'So have you always done this much dance?'

'I got into it more after we left the Cheerios' Quinn turned around to get into her starting position, but she immediately turned back around as she heard Rachel's voice again.

'You're happier, though, now, right?' Rachel awaited Quinn's response, but wasn't given one through speech. The blonde raised her head as she looked Rachel in the eyes for the first time in a while. Rachel saw the loneliness and pain in the eyes of the girl who stood before her as the same girl began to tear up. Rachel stared at Quinn for a moment too long causing Quinn to break it, hiding back beneath her disguise.

'What are you doing here anyway?' Quinn turned around to take her starting position swiftly. "God, I'm going soft, not even a name?" She thought to herself briefly.

'I had to go to the library to do some studying but seeing as it closed at 4:45 I now have some time to do some ballet myself.'

Quinn got up off of the floor quickly as she whipped around to ask Rachel a question, 'Wait, what time did you say it was?'

'Well it'll be around 5 o'clock now, wh-' Rachel was interrupted.

'Shit!' Quinn grabbed her iPod and rushed off to the changing room with Rachel chasing after her.

'Quinn I don't think that language is very appropriate, neither is your lack of clothing!' Rachel turned around immediately as soon as she realised that the blonde wasn't going to shut the door. Rachel was used to seeing flashes of underwear from Quinn as well as Santana and Brittany- she figured they were used to just walking around in their underwear whilst changing in the Cheerios seeing as they did the same whilst changing for the glee club performances.

'No-one is forcing you to look!' Quinn knew Rachel would have already turned away, making her confident that she wouldn't have to worry about Rachel seeing what she herself refused to when she looked in the mirror. She changed as quickly as she could which seemed to take only a matter of seconds. She grabbed her bag, leaving her dancing clothes in a heap in the corner. 'Do you have your car with you?'

'I don't have one.'

'You have got to be kidding me!' Quinn raced off down the hall to exit the school with Rachel closely following her.

'Well what is the point in driving when you can get the fresh air and exercise whilst walking. And besid-'

'Shut it Berry! Is there a car at your house I can use?'

'One of my dads should be home now.' Quinn started running with Rachel to the smaller girl's house. During the half-mile run, Quinn convinced Rachel to allow her to use her father's car, with Rachel coming too to then drive it back. They were about halfway through the painfully silent drive before Quinn shouted

'Damn stupid traffic!'

'Why are you in such a rush to get home?' Rachel asked hesitantly.

'Ur, I forgot my keys and my mom has to go to a meeting so I need to get home before she leaves.' She was always good at cover-ups, more recently there were just streams of them flowing out of her mouth. For example during their next conversation a couple of minutes later

'Do you have any paracetamol?' Quinn questioned, hoping the diva would have a whole collection of medicines in her invisible pockets.

'No, why?' Rachel answered after searching through the medical kit situated next to her.

'Headache from lunch earlier, some kid started a food fight.' Another lie.

'Wouldn't aspirin be more helpful?'

'Whatever' Rachel handed Quinn the aspirin. The blonde popped four tablets into her mouth together before swallowing.

'You're only supposed to take 2 maximum.'

'I'm just taking a couple extra to make it last longer.' She was beginning to lose impatience with the girl in the passenger seat.

'Quinn, that's called an overdose.'

Quinn pulled up on her drive and stepped out of the car 'Later' she muttered grabbing her bag, 'Oh and er, thanks.' She gestured towards the car as she sent Rachel a soft smile who returned it.

'See you tomorrow, bright and early for glee club!' Rachel climbed into the driver's seat, waiting to make sure Quinn was able to get into the house before leaving. But her eyes were left lingering on the doorway where Quinn had entered when Rachel noticed a manly hand grab her forcefully by the arm, before slamming the door shut. Rachel had convinced herself it was nothing to worry about, maybe Mrs. Fabray looked masculine or Quinn was secretly seeing someone. The brunette shook it off as she drove back to the Berry household whilst humming various songs from her favourite musicals.

The next morning, Quinn's hands were yet again holding the blade. She carved deep, angry gorges into scared skin, loosing count of the number of crevices of hurt she drew on each arm. It was as though she needed that pain, as though it was good to feel a form of it other than that present in her heart. What she felt was also different from the pain around the rest of her body; it was there in the moment, real, to then heal. She could control this, she was in control. It felt good.

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! Please review and let me know what you think? Sorry for errors :/ Please let me know if you want me to continue Xx**


	3. Tuesday

**Note: I just want to say thank-you again to everyone who has reviewed, alerted and favourited- I don't stop smiling when I read the feedback! I am also really sorry I haven't updated for a while- I'm camping at the moment and this is the first access which I have had to a computer so please don't hate me? I really hope you like this chapter (I'm not sure if I do or not), but please let me know what you think? Enjoy!**

_**I don't own 'Glee' :(**_

_The next morning, Quinn's hands were yet again holding the blade. She carved deep, angry gorges into scared skin, loosing count of the number of crevices of hurt she drew on each arm. It was as though she needed that pain, as though it was good to feel a form of it other than that present in her heart. What she felt was also different from the pain around the rest of her body; it was there in the moment, real, to then heal. She could control this, she was in control. It felt good._

Rachel woke up as soon as her music was blasting out of her stereo to interrupt her sleep. The brunette sat still in bed when she remembered what had happened in her dream- well she wouldn't necessarily call it a dream:

Quinn was there, but she was different; she was wearing dark clothing and had died her hair pink, she certainly was not the Quinn Fabray everyone knew. Rachel remembered a conversation...

***'Quinn Fabray, don't you walk away whilst I am talking to you, I find it incredibly rude. What makes you think you have the authori-' She had grabbed the taller girl's wrist to stop her from going off again, before the girl she was holding pleaded

'Please just stop, please just be quiet. It's my life, my decisions and my mistakes.'***

Rachel could remember that Quinn had tears in her eyes, but for some reason she was angry at the crying girl until she realised why she was so upset, or at least she thought.

***'Quinn, listen to me,' she let go of her arm to use her hand to move Quinn's head gently to make her look up from the floor, 'You don't need to go changing who you are. You are a beautiful girl Quinn, and people love you, we all love you in some form, but we love Quinn Fabray, not the girl she is pretending to be.'

'Oh yeah?' Quinn was letting her tears fall freely as they streamed down her face, 'Well would you call this beautiful?' She roughly rolled up her sleeve to reveal numerous dark, meaningful scars running up her arm. Rachel stood staring for less than a second before Quinn drew her attention to something else. Her stomach- she had raised her shirt revealing bruises of varying size and color spread across her once flawless skin as she screamed 'AND THIS IS CERTAINLY FAR FROM LOVE!'***

Rachel found herself now slightly crying as she remembered visions of holding the girl after she broke down in her arms. The brunette wiped her eyes as she gave a light chuckle- of all the things she had planned to do before leaving high school, dreaming of Quinn Fabray was definitely not one of them. She found herself doing another out-of-character action an hour later- she was sat on Quinn Fabray's driveway, the steering wheel of her dad's car in her hands where she had been for the past 20 minutes.

It had been exactly 22 minutes before Quinn had left her house- the diva had been counting the length of time that she was sat in the car. Inside, Quinn felt broken, hell, she was in pieces, but on the outside yet again she was 'that girl', who was locking the door before mindlessly climbing into the Berry car.

'What are you doing here?' She found herself asking as she put her safety belt on. She didn't mean to sound as bitter as she did, but she figured it was for the best.

'I just wondered if you wanted a lift,' Rachel began to answer as she started to pull off of the driveway, 'and considering the fact that you are sat in the passenger seat I figure that I was right.'

'Yeah...' Quinn muttered as she turned her body the best she could to look out of the window, hiding the fact that tears had clouded her vision as she fought the battle of not letting them fall. They sat in silence as Quinn's mind paced through flashbacks of the past 12 hours, wanting just to run. Run away from all of the fear and the nightmares that were becoming increasingly true. She didn't know where to, just away, to end it all forever, never looking back.

'Are you okay?' Rachel broke the silence.

'I'm fine, really,' Quinn smiled, 'thanks for the lift, I, um, I appreciate it.' The blonde had been so involved in her thoughts that she didn't notice that they were in the parking lot already.

'Aren't you coming to the glee meeting?' The brunette stepped out of her car to catch up with the blonde.

'Yeah, I just have something to do first.' She picked up her pace.

'Okay, I'll see you in a few minutes.' Rachel smiled before walking off into the opposite direction. Quinn was in the girl's bathroom in no time, locking herself into the cleanest cubicle. This was where she sat, on the floor, for what felt like an eternity letting a few of her tears fall. The crying girl examined her scars on the underside of her arms, tracing the fresh cuts with her fingertips, wondering why the only solution just seemed to add to the problem.

The glee meeting began on time, with most of the club walking in late, but eventually everyone attended, even if their brains weren't 100% there. They organised what they needed to, before saying goodbye to one another, ready to perform during their break time.

The club were sat in their usual seats as Mr. Schuester walked in, a crateful of costumes in his arms. The teacher handed out the dresses and suits, before directing the boys and girls as of where to change. It was about five minutes, before the Spanish teacher heard someone knocking on his door.

'Come in!' He called cheerfully, closing the lid of his laptop down before standing to walk over to the girl who had just entered. 'Quinn, what can I do for you? Costume too big? I thought you were looking slimmer since the last time you were all measured.'

'It is a little large, but it'll be fine. I was actually wondering if I could keep my cardigan on for the performance,' she tugged at the sleeves on her black cardigan she was currently wearing, 'it's just it's a bit chilly out there and I tend to feel the cold.'

'That's fine Quinn, are the others nearly ready?' He smiled.

'I think so. Thanks Mr. Schue.' As she turned around to leave, it had to happen didn't it? The sleeve of her security blanket got caught on her dress, causing the sleeve to rise up. Will grabbed Quinn by the wrist to stop her from leaving when he spotted some old scars. He stared into her watery eyes, searching for what to say.

'Mr. Schuester I...'

'I'm going to have to organise a meeting with your parents and Miss. Pillsbury, because frankly, I don't know what to do.' He released his grip on her arm, allowing her to pull her sleeve back down before the new marks were revealed.

'You didn't have to know!' Quinn couldn't help raising her voice as tears stung her cheeks. She was angry, angry at the world.

'Quinn, do you know how serious this gets? People die from this.' Will tried to remain calm but struggled against his voice trying to match the volume of Quinn's.

'Well, at least they get the easy way out...' The blonde whispered.

'What?' He stepped closer to Quinn, putting his hands on her shoulders.

'It doesn't matter, I've stopped now anyway, it was just a thing of the past, I promise.'

Will pulled Quinn into a hug. 'Just please promise me that if you ever need to talk, ever, please come and speak to me or Miss. Pillsbury, we are here to help.'

'I promise.' She stepped away to leave, at last, her chance to escape to the freedom beyond the prison walls of Lima...

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading- sorry for any mistakes! Please let me know what you thought of it and if you think I should continue? Have a nice day! Xx**


	4. Park'for pleasure or children to play'

**Note: Thank-you so much to those who have alerted and favorited, and thank-you to 'sdmwd1115' for your review on the last chapter and to all those who reviewed on the first two chapters! I hope I am keeping you all interested and wanting to read, but please let me know even if it isn't /if you have an idea on how to improve. Sorry the next chapter is a couple of hundred of words less than previous chapters- I ran out of time on the computers to write anymore- I promise that I will make the next chapter longer than normal to make up for it if you want me to? Anyway, I hope you like this chapter!**

_**I do not own 'Glee' *cries***_

Quinn hurried to the school reception, abandoning her bag. The excuse she wrote in the sign out book was that she felt ill, but really she did. She felt so sick, just the thought of someone knowing one of her many secrets made her want to crawl into a hole and die, let alone it being someone who wouldn't give up until he had all of the answers. She ran. She didn't know where she was going, but she just ran, hoping that she could get away before she was dragged back into it all again. Quinn's surroundings were just a blur, until she stumbled in the park, ripping up her dress and right knee. She didn't know when she had begun to cry, but hot tears were streaming down her face as she rolled over on to her back, before curling up against a tree. _"Get it together, come on you stupid bitch!"_ she shouted to herself mentally and before she knew it, she was standing and limping over towards the hedge- she remembered once when she visited Lima she played in a hole within the large greenery when she was younger. As she crawled under the entanglement of leaves, she found a teddy- one that belonged to a little Lucy. Q. Fabray...

_***Flashback***_

_A six-year-old Quinn was sat within the once tame bush, her teddy bears sat in a circle as she had a 'picnic' with them. She could have stayed there for hours, talking to her three teddies about anything and everything. Back then was one of the happiest days of her life- school was off that day, meaning a break from the already judging and bullying children._

'_Lucy! Lucy, where are you?' She heard her mother calling cheerfully._

'_I'm just coming mommy!' Lucy beamed at her mother as she poked her head through the tiny entrance._

'_Come on sweetie, it's time to go.' Quinn grabbed her teddies as she crawled out on her knees to the slightly larger area inside the bush, where her mother was waiting for her. Judy picked her up, the tired girl happily accepting her mother's warm arms._

'_Will we ever come back?'_

'_Maybe one day sweetheart. Now we need to get going, we don't want daddy being cross with us do we?' Mrs. Fabray said in a light tone. Lucy shook her head as she nestled further into her mother's coat. Judy began walking out crouched down until she could stand up, her youngest daughter still tightly in her arms. As they made their exit, the child's arm whacked against the bush, causing her to drop the contents of her hand. The little girl hadn't noticed until they got home that her favourite teddy, 'Teddy Bear' was still sat in a park in Lima, all by himself._

_***End Flashback***_

Quinn had crawled into her old spot by now, Teddy Bear clutched safely in her hands. The shattered girl laid in a ball on her side, she was exhausted from all the crying she had been doing recently and she couldn't remember the last time she had a proper night's sleep. She finally let the temptation of sleep overcome...

***Meanwhile...***

Mr. Schuester walked back into the choir room where the club had gathered ready for the performance.

'Mr. Schue, have you seen Quinn?' Mercedes asked after the girl hadn't returned. The Spanish teacher hesitated

'I think, she went home ill, I'll check to see if she has signed out, are you guys okay to start preparing yourselves?' Rachel nodded violently as she stood in front of the rest of the group, ready to direct them. The club were waiting patiently outside in the courtyard when Mr. Schue returned (he had visited reception to confirm that she had gone home, returning to the club after texting Quinn to ask if she was okay- she was a sensible girl, she would go home, rest and will talk to him if she needed to, wouldn't she?).

'Okay guys, we are going to have to do it without Quinn, okay?' Mr. Schuester smiled at the teens when he approached the group. In reply they all muttered some variation of the word 'yes'. The performance went smoothly, with only the choreography looking a bit odd in areas due to the lack of the troubled blonde. It was smooth, up until the very end, when every single member were greeted in the face with ice-cold slushies, with Rachel Berry being the receiver of the extra one.

_***In the park...***_

Quinn woke with a start, her face was stained with tears she didn't know she had been crying and her limbs felt weak. She didn't know exactly what she had been doing in her sleep, nor what had happened in her head, but one thing she knew for sure it had been one of 'those' stories within her mind. 'Those' stories being the ones that she was too familiar with, when she was asleep or wide awake, she knew the spoilers all too well. As she sat up, she looked up to her left arm which was trickling with blood, her hand intertwined with thorns.

It was like it was a need, an addiction. She had to do it, it was all that seemed to help improve her situation if only in the slightest. She needed to cut. Due to the lack of a razor and not wanting to use the thorns, leaving even more blood for an innocent child to find, Quinn began to remove her earring. It didn't have a sharp back like the ones they use to pierce your ears yet she figured it would work. She pressed the tip of the post to her scarred skin, pressing down with all of her anger, before drawing a line. It took a few attempts at this, back and forth, until blood began to appear. However, she didn't stop, she wouldn't be satisfied until it had the same effect as a simple cut from a blade. She let the crimson blood pool in the cut, before watching the lake overflow, watching it drip off of her pale skin, staining it effortlessly. Quinn laid back, allowing the pain to hit her. Although it helped a bit, it would never be enough. Never...

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! It really means so much to me to see that you have alerted and favorited and your reviews always make me happy, so please let me know what you think (&constructive criticism is welcomed). Please let me know if you want me to continue? Have a good day Xx**


	5. That Damn Friday

**Note: Thank-you so much to everyone who has alerted, favorited and reviewed! I can't stop smiling when I check my emails. I'm really sorry that I didn't get chance to update this sooner- I honestly did try (and fanfiction went crazy so it wouldn't let me), so please don't shoot me? Anywho, I was reading glee related news and saw the thing about Dianna Agron and her childhood- if that is true I feel so sorry for her as I know kind of how it feels even though what she would have gone through would have been much worse (and I know that there are many people who have worse childhoods than her but still...), much love to her :'(. This chapter isn't longer like I promised sorry, but it got to a suitable ending point, also, this seems to be moving quite fast at the moment, but that's because I have something big planned if you want me to continue? As always, please, please, please review- whether it's criticism or complements, I will appreciate them muchly. Sorry for the long note... Hope you like this chapter!**

_**If only I did own the television show called 'Glee'...**_

'I would like to report a missing person.' Judy spoke, trying to cover-up the hurt in her voice.

'Hello, what is your own name please?' The woman heard a formal female voice on the other end of the line.

'But my dau-' The woman Judy was previously speaking to just heard a loud beep, signalling that she had been hung up on. Her daughter had been missing for 2 days now, she had to ring. She figured it was worth her facing the 'consequences' as long as her little angel was safe. That was until the person threatening her with the 'consequences' had crossed her mind as she heard him walking down the hall- she hung up before she was caught.

~\*/~

Nothing really changed over the past two days; the glee club had no new members, Rachel was still fussing over Finn, the club, who were still being harassed by the once Neanderthal-Puckheads-now-footballers click, were working on various numbers and the Cheerios had themselves two extra members- Santana and Brittany (despite the near state of insane Sue demonstrated when the two auditioned without Q). The school was under the understanding that Quinn was ill at home, being advised to rest. Upon hearing this a few members of New Directions wanted to visit her, but were only sent away by her mother when they reached the front door.

Despite the fact that the past 48 hours went the speed of lightening to the majority of Lima residents, for a small blonde at a park in Lima, it was a whole other story...

_***In the park...***_

The fragile girl still lay in the clearing in the bush, clutching her teddy tight. She figured eventually that the park was a good place to stay what with there being public toilets nearby. There she was able to stay when it rained, or became cold during the day time and she could get water so she didn't die of dehydration, however much she wanted too. The past night had been abnormally cold for this time of year and the pouring rain didn't help matters. Unfortunately, the toilets were locked overnight to keep out any unwanted visitors, leaving the Fabray girl outside. So, that had been the past 2,880 minutes for the blonde, cutting when she needed to, using the back of the earring like she had before. She had cried herself to sleep, only waking shortly after when she felt _him_ all over her in her constant nightmares. She lived this way for nearly two weeks, staying in the shadows, unnoticed, that was until that damn Friday that changed it all...

The sun had set over Ohio about four hours ago. It was a clear night, the stars twinkling like glitter thrown across the darkness of the sky. There would be no harm emerging for ten minutes or so, to study them would there? Quinn certainly didn't think so, well, there had never been a problem before. The petite starved girl crawled out, revealing her tattered black dress, the dark blue decoration shimmering in the moonlight. There was a spot which she had gone to before that was off of the main paths where she could remain hidden. She laid on the damp grass for about 3 minutes before the peaceful state of mind which she had finally been able to achieve had been ripped into pieces. Two men, probably in their late twenties, came staggering off of the path. It was then that they saw her laying peacefully on the ground, her blonde hair spread out across the grass, with her slim frame perfecting the image making her look weak and vulnerable. This was so good.

Quinn stirred from her daze as the two men blocked her view.

'Hey sweet stuff!' The slightly shorter man slurred. He was wearing a red baseball cap with a stained shirt, jeans and old trainers. The taller man to his left was wearing similar clothing, just in different colors.

'Excuse me?' Quinn spat as she began to sit up. It had been a couple of weeks since she had heard the HBIC tone in herself and even her normal voice was becoming unfamiliar to her. The taller man grabbed her by the shoulders to force her back to the floor.

'Oh, she has a voice, shame she's all talk.' Quinn's tired body wanted to give up fighting once the two drunks were pinning her down- the shorter holding Quinn's arms to the ground above her head and the other man sitting on her legs. 'Let's see what you're made of.' He chuckled as he began pulling her dress up her thighs.

'GET OFF OF ME!' Quinn screamed, her voice coming out croaky from the sheer force of the words leaving her mouth.

'Oh come on, you can't tell me that a sweet little girl like you doesn't have their wants for these sins?' He pulled a puppy dog-like look at her as the man wearing the red baseball cap laughed wickedly. Quinn was crying now, she had stayed strong up until then having being brought up to not show emotion.

'I'll do anything... just please, please... please don't...' Quinn pleaded as she sent a silent prayer up to a god she wasn't even sure existed anymore. Clumsy hands had pulled her dress up to her waist.

'You'll do anything, eh? Well, here's what we're gonna do; you're going to lay here like a good little girl, then we are going to fuck you so hard you're not gonna know what's hit 'ya.' He grabbed her thighs and brought them up to either side of her hips. He drew his hands up her thighs until he reached her panties. 'And then, we are going to go home, and you will keep your mouth quiet won't you? Then you will stay here so that we can use you whenever... we... want!' He was fiddling with her underwear, trying to remove them as a firm hand gripped his shoulder. He turned around quickly to see a tall, brown-haired man looming above him, his features stern. He instructed emotionlessly

'Get off of my daughter.'

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! Sorry if I made any mistakes, things often make sense in my brain, but when I put them to paper it comes out as complete nonsense :L. Please, let me know what you thought, or if you have any improvements that you think would help me please also let me know? Thank-you again Xx**


	6. Returning to Hell

**Note: Thank-you all so much for your alerts, favorites and reviews, I love you all! A bit more is revealed in this chapter and even more in the next chapter if you want me to continue? Thank-you again for your feedback :) and I hope you like this chapter!**_** (**__**MsChloeMa**__**- I read it at **__**.com/people/2011/09/02/dianna-agron-opens-up-about-troubled-past/**__**, but if you do a google news search on her name it comes up - I searched that originally and it is on a load of other sites as well.)**_

_**I don't own 'Glee' :'(**_

'_Get off of my daughter.'_

Quinn could recognise that voice any day, the voice that sent shivers down her spine.

'Your daughter, eh?' One of the men chuckled. He pulled out his phone to light up the man who had interrupted their fun. The light revealed his hair to be more of a blonde color rather than brown and he was wearing formal clothing.

'Yes, now fucking get off of her before I call the cops.' It was Quinn's father alright. It had been 2 years since he had last called her his, however she knew he didn't mean it; that he was only saying it to get them off of her so that he could take her back to use in any way he wished.

'Is that a threat?' The taller man pushed Russell's hand off of his shoulder as he stood up to face him. The shorter man joined him, allowing Quinn to slowly back off, still on the floor.

'Now you bastards listen to me,' He grabbed both of their arms as he spat in their faces 'I've had enough of your stupid whiney questions, it's obvious why you don't have your own partners and why you have to go out and rape some little obnoxious kid just to get your fix, but I don't want to see you doing that to my daughter again, understand? I won't call the cops as long as you co-operate. Deal?' They could smell the alcohol which smothered his breath, but theirs was the same. The man in the red cap took one last look into Russell's cold eyes before grunting

'Let's go man', patting the taller on the back.

'I never want to see your faces again!' Russell shouted as they were leaving. He walked over to the tree that Quinn was leaning against. 'Get up.' He instructed and she did so immediately. 'What do you have to say for yourself?'

'Daddy I'm so sorry.' She sniffed, wiping her tears.

'I AM NOT YOUR FATHER! How many times do I have to say that to get it through your thick skull!' Quinn knew that didn't require a reply, but she couldn't stop her mouth.

'But, you... you jus-'

'I just saved your freaking arse you little piece of shit! You should be thanking me and doing exactly as I say, your tone disgusts me. Mind you, I doubt I would be wrong to say that you didn't want to be saved did you? You probably wanted to do it with them didn't you, you little whore.' He grabbed her by the wrist violently before briskly dragging her to the car. Quinn's vision was blurred by a fresh flood of tears. She only knew where they were by the feel of concrete under her toes in comparison to the damp grass that had previously chilled her bare feet. Russell unlocked the car, keeping his eyes on the shaking girl all the time. Quinn stared at his face through her tears, searching for a fraction of the love she had once loved her herself. No, she was only met with pure hate.

'Get in.' Quinn gently opened up the car door, trying to figure out his next move. She was half way in as he shoved her hard, causing her head to crash into the mirror. Her entire body flinched as she heard the door slam shut behind her. In seconds he was in the driver's seat next to her, driving off before she even had the chance to register that the engine had been started. Quinn didn't bother with the seat belt as she curled up against the window. Her hand was supporting the weight of her head as she began to drift off to sleep.

She didn't imagine that she had been asleep long because they were still in the car. She straightened back up in her seat as she noticed that blood covered her hand. She had completely forgotten about hitting her head when they got in. She looked carefully in the wing mirror to inspect the damage. There was a trail of blood down the right side of her face, with drips on her cardigan.

'Wh-Why did you take me away from there?' Quinn whispered, hoping his answer wasn't a beating then and there.

'Why did you think that you could get away from me?' He replied immediately.

Quinn swallowed. Her face stung as salty tears were mixing with the tracks of dried blood. 'What are you going to do to me?' She looked across at him then, begging for forgiveness in her lost eyes. He didn't look back, let alone answer- he just sped up. His knuckles were turning white due to how hard he was gripping the steering wheel. The rest of the drive was filled with silence.

~/*\~

Quinn stared at herself in her full-length mirror. It was Monday and she knew it was morning, she didn't know what the time was, but the sun had risen recently as birds were singing sweet untainted cheery songs in harmony, drowning out her cries. She covered the scar on her head with a band-aid before attending to her fresh bruises from the weekend just passed. She had showered whilst it was still dark, knowing how long it would take her to get ready. She dressed and did her hair and make-up and before long, she was the flawless Quinn Fabray again, that everyone knew and expected no less of. She put on her best smile as she inspected herself in the mirror. Her false facade faded into cries. The blonde kicked the mirror off of the bathroom wall, shattering it into tiny pieces. She punched the wall where the mirror previously stood. The crumbling girl slid down to the floor next to the glass, curling into the fetal position, letting her emotions run free. Her pale hands picked up a piece of glass a few moments later as she pressed it to the exposed skin of her arm. The view and feel of the crimson escaping from her body calmed her as she let her sadness flow with it.

~/*\~

Mr. Schuester's first class that day was also Quinn's. She walked back into school that morning dreading what the others would say, but as she walked down the corridor, she only turned a few heads, everyone else just completely ignored her.

'Hi, Quinn, how are you feeling now?' the Spanish teacher smiled as she walked into class.

'Much better now thanks Mr. Schue.' She smiled back.

'That's great.' She knew he didn't suspect a thing, neither did anyone. She was just the perfect girl with the perfect family. As Quinn sat in class, she let her mind go wondering. She thought about one thing mainly and that was something that constantly crossed her mind. She dreamed about the perfect happy life she could have if she told someone. How they would hold her and tell her it would all be okay. They would protect her from the monsters that were too real to be from some book they read in class. They wouldn't be scared away when they found out about the hell they were oblivious to behind closed doors. But most of all they would love her despite her horrific past and the person she had become, they would love her unconditionally always like her family should. She would be loved.

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! Sorry if I made any errors etc... Please let me know what you thought- constructive criticism is also welcomed? Also please let me know if you want me to continue? Thank-you again and I hope you have a great day! Xx**


	7. I Don't Love You'

**Note: Thank-you so much to everyone who has been reading, alerted, favorited and reviewed! I'm really sorry I didn't have chance to upload this sooner- I've been so busy recently, but I shouldn't be making excuses, so I really hope that you like this chapter? Please let me know if you do, or if you don't, or have any constructive criticism- any form of feedback is welcomed. :) Enjoy!**

_**I don't own 'Glee' unfortunately, or the song in this chapter- 'I Don't Love You' by MCR (I changed a couple of the words slightly).**_

Quinn crashed back into the real world as the loud bell hammered her aching head. After a few blinks, Quinn composed herself again before packing her bag and leaving. During lunch, the halls were busy as per usual, filled with groups of shouting, fighting teens. She headed towards the auditorium where she was able to escape from all of the crap clouding her head. As ex-head cheerleader, Quinn had keys to the main buildings within the school that she had 'accidently' forgotten to give back. It was empty. The blonde dumped her bag at the very top of the seating area, carelessly flinging the strap over the back of a chair. The emptiness of the room somehow comforted the emptiness inside her; it gave her a chance to be someone else- to forget about everything and be free, she was able to express things she didn't have the courage to do through her own words, yet no body needed to know that the words held such a deep meaning to her. Quinn slowly walked down the auditorium steps, her eyes focused on the piano on stage right. When she reached the stage, Quinn carefully sat on the piano stool, mesmerized by the instrument in front of her. Before she knew it, her fingers were delicately playing as her voice began to sing:

'Well, when you go,  
>Don't ever think I'll make you try to stay,<br>And maybe when you get back  
>I'll be off to find another way.'<p>

Quinn always imagined her father before her as she sang these words that brought tears to her eyes.

'And after all this time that you still owe,  
>You're still a good-for-nothing I don't know,<br>So take your gloves and get out,  
>Better get out while you can.'<p>

Her delicate fingers began pressing harder onto the keys as her anger bubbled with a mix of other emotions.

'When you go would you even turn to say;  
>"I don't love you like I did yesterday"?'<p>

The teen was too engrossed in the song to notice the door open at the top of the stairs where she had entered earlier. A brunette was now making her way slowly down a few steps, before sitting, not wanting to disturb the girl on stage.

'Sometimes I cry so hard from pleading,  
>So sick and tired of all the needless beating,<br>But maybe when you knock me down and out  
>It's where I oughta stay.'<p>

'Well after all the blood that you still owe,  
>Another dollar's just another blow,<br>So fix your eyes and get up,  
>Better get up while you can.'<p>

Rachel could hear the pain in Quinn's voice and as she saw the blonde's tears glistening in the light, she couldn't help herself to not shed a few too.

'When you go would you even turn to say,  
>"I don't love you like I did yesterday"?<br>Well come on, come on!'

'When you go would you have the guts to say,  
>"I don't love you like I loved you yesterday"?'<p>

'I don't love you, like I loved you, yesterday,  
>I don't love you, like I loved you, yesterday...'<p>

Quinn rubbed her sore hands slightly, before running them along her eyes trying to clear her vision without her make-up turning her into a panda. Rachel did the same. The smaller gleek stood up from her position on the step as she continued to walk towards the stage. Quinn now had her back turned to the silent diva. She was only alerted to her presence when she heard a voice coming from behind her.

''I Don't Love You' by My Chemical Romance...' Rachel said, just above a whisper. Quinn turned her head slightly, allowing her to catch a glimpse of Rachel before turning back. The brunette took this as an invitation to join Quinn at the piano stool. The other girl didn't protest, in fact she seemed to move over slightly, allowing Rachel the room to sit with her. 'It's not really my sort of band, but I've got to say it kind of surprised me that it is yours.' She tried to break the awkward silence, but was only met with more heavy breaths. 'Why did you choose to sing that song?' As the words left her mouth quickly, Rachel looked Quinn in the eyes. They stared into one-another's orbs like they had the other week in the dance studio. Rachel could see the tears beginning to well in hazel eyes, and she felt as if she was able to read Quinn like a book- she guessed the blonde's next move correctly as she turned to hide away the emptiness, loneliness and fear she was too afraid to show (as well as a bunch of other emotions that Rachel couldn't quite place). 'What I meant was, what does that song mean to you? I could hear in your voice that it obviously meant a lot?'

'It's just a song,' was Quinn's simple response after what seemed like years of silence. She couldn't express how much she wanted to tell the forgiving and understanding girl sat next to her, but she couldn't open up. She just couldn't. The reason why began to cross her mind- she didn't know whether it was that she was terrified that she would scare the other girl away, or worse, she might tell someone and try to fix things that were meant to remain broken. She was worried most of all that she would end up hurting Rachel, the girl had only been kind to her, ever, and she didn't want to just drag her down with her mess of a life.

'If it was just a song, then why were you crying... and why are you again now?'

'I'm not. It is just a song and that is it.' She stood up in protest, her voice sounding harsher than she had intended, 'I understand that you want to go around and try and make up problems for you to fix as you don't have friends, but next time you feel like poking your nose around in someone else's business, stay out of mine!' Quinn stormed out of the back entrance, leaving her bag and a surprised Rachel whose jaw dropped at the sudden outburst.

Quinn knew all too well that she had lost the battle of her emotions; she wanted to go and find _him_ and punch the life out of him, but all she could do was cry. Right now, as she was running down the corridor, she could feel the tears spilling over the emotional dam she had built, soaking her face and dress. She flung open the nearest bathroom door, to see a couple of freshman Cheerios re-applying their make-up.

'Out! I said get out!' The two cheerleaders exchanged looks before turning their attention back to Quinn. At first they didn't move, that was until the intruder began burning holes through the girls with her manic stare, slamming her hand down onto the sink in the process. The two freshmen grabbed their make-up bags before heading quickly towards the door, chancing one last look at the blonde before re-entering the hectic hallways. Quinn checked that the stalls were all empty before stalking towards the door. She locked it, effectively locking herself away from the world as she wanted to be. She rested her forehead against the door as she began to cry loudly. Slamming her hand against the door a few times, she began to break down. Her whole body shook with sobs as she turned and slid down the door. The coolness of the floor against her back quieted her cries, but they didn't stop; the tears may have even been coming on stronger, if that was even possible. She rolled up her sleeves once again, staring vacantly at her forever marked skin. Her pale fingers pressed against her wrists before digging her nails deep and dragging them up the length of her forearm. She dragged them back and forth enough times for her to lose count, breaking the pattern of horizontal lines with vertical ones on both of her arms at the same time. Blood was dripping off of her finger tips as she rested them back down on the tiles, her vision too hazy to see the mess she made. She shakily stood up to walk over to the mirror. She blinked quickly to clear her sight as she stared at herself in the mirror, disgust written all over her face. She brought up her arms to draw an 'X' across her chest in blood, marking herself that she doesn't feel, she can't feel. She should be out with the trash as she's passed her sell by date. She's broken, too broken. She will never be fixed...

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading this! Really sorry for any mistakes etc- my writing skills have never been great :L. As I said before, please review- I will really appreciate it and would love to know what you think of this story so far? Also, please let me know if you want me to continue or not? Thank-you again and I hope you have a great weekend Xx**


	8. The Night Stalker

**Note: Thank-you sooooooo much to everyone who has alerted, favorited and reviewed- when I see this my smile can only be described as some unnatural un-forced stage smile... *hugs*! I kept forgetting to say this in my previous notes, but, if you want me to continue, it will be about the next chapter when it will start to be properly revealed about what has really been going on with Quinn with lots more information after that- it was one of the lovely reviews that reminded me of this : ) Please let me know what you think of this chapter? Enjoy **_**(hopefully?)**_**!**

**I do not own 'Glee', 'cause we all know if I did Glee would not be amazing at all...**

Quinn woke suddenly. She had no idea how long she had been asleep on the floor for; she knew it must have been a while as her fresh wounds were no longer bleeding, however there were still lessons in progress throughout McKinley, otherwise one of the janitorial staff would have been in there cleaning up. The sleepy blonde stood up from her position on the floor; her back had been resting against the wash basins with her knees close to her chest. She remembered drifting off to sleep like this- she had stared at her reflection for a long time, as if she was expecting it to spring to life if she stared at it hard enough. But no, there were no magic reflections, no magic mirror- the teen's sobs once again curled her down protectively onto the floor.

She looked at her reflection once again now that she was on her feet. She definitely looked a mess and she felt it too. As much as she didn't want to go back to that hell hole that is a so called 'home', she would rather be there now, with the comfort of her room to keep her alive another day. Quinn fixed her cardigan in the mirror, covering up her scars and then her blood stained dress by pulling it securely around her.

~/*\~

Quinn laid on top of her sheets, not having the energy or will power to do anything else. She had managed to make a swift escape from school a few hours ago. Her mind relaxed as she heard her laboured breaths, yet it began to fill with anger that he couldn't have just done it to her then, ended her life. The events of the past hour or so started to course through her mind, like a fire spreading to every corner, leaving her with no escape, her only choice to succumb to the flames until they had torn her apart once again. Visions of his face as he mumbled some drunken slur were before her senses, as was the sound of her wrist cracking as she was dragged by it up the stairs after she had 'fallen down' to only 'fall' again and the way he looked at her as he began t-

Quinn brought up her palm as she smacked it hard against her heavy head trying to rid the memories she wouldn't, couldn't replay. The girl didn't cry, she never did anymore over this._ It was pathetic._ She had berated herself with these words endlessly for a while after the first few times things had begun to get bad. Now she rarely had to, this wasn't the thing that made her cry herself to sleep, or break down into sobs when she couldn't handle it all anymore (although it was a major part). Perfectly shaped eyebrows furrowed as hazel eyes fluttered closed. She was so exhausted.

~/*\~

Rachel Berry parked a little down the road from the Fabray house on Dudley Road- she had no idea what sort of mood Quinn would be in when she knocked on her door, but she had a feeling it wasn't going to be a good one. As her small feet walked her onto the small stones covering the driveway she began reciting through the speech she had planned for Quinn. If this visit had the effect she desired, Quinn would have gotten her bag back which she had left at the top of the auditorium and Rachel would have the gift of the knowledge of what's been up with Quinn recently. Rachel stopped in her tracks as two shadows appeared on the curtain, hiding the figures within. The brunette hadn't realised how close she was to the window until she heard a male voice,

'She had what was coming to her the littl-'

'Here let me pour you another glass.' A female's voice was now present too, but the feminine figure was now out of Rachel's sight. 'Are you allowing Quinn out of her room for dinner?' There it was again. At the simple mention of the certain blonde's name, Rachel felt her heart pounding faster, threatening to break open her ribcage.

'No, she will remain there until whenever she has to go to school tomorrow, no earlier.' His words were harsh, making Rachel believe that her increasing pulse was due to her increasing concern. If she was going to find Quinn then she was going to have to break in.

Rachel found her way around to the back of the Fabray's house with perfect view of what she presumed to be Quinn's window. Rachel pulled out a handful of the tiny stones from her bag that she had collected off of the driveway. Rachel's aim was never the best, but after a few attempts, she managed to hit the window several times.

'You're not going to find her here.' The petite diva jumped as she heard an older woman's voice breaking the silence of the night. She turned around, hoping to reveal a familiar face, but the woman was under the shadow of the tree next to Rachel.

'What?' Rachel questioned, her intrigued half over-powered the petrified one.

'Quinn Fabray. She's not here... she crawled down the drain pipe no more than ten minutes ago, you just missed her I'm afraid.'

'And you are?'

'I've been living on this road for the past 70 years. I've seen many families come and go, but none as remarkable as the Fabrays... Almost too remarkable. Well that is apart from that idiotic teen who you are out here looking for tonight.'

'Do not talk about my friend that way.' Rachel's protectiveness shocked herself as the words left her mouth threateningly.

'She's the downside to this family;' the stranger continued, 'by sending her away, her parents think that it kept any of us knowing about her bastard child, but we know. Quinn's a disgrace to this whole area. Everyone is right to ignore her, she has no-one on her dark side around here, even her parents. Her mother pretended to be all loving and motherly when it was just the two of them, but neither care about her really.'

'You have no idea what she has been through! I mean we don't exactly either, yet, but she's always been that way, never giving on about her true feelings.'

'Well she's a Fabray, no less is expected of them.'

'_She, _has a name and she is also a human. It is natural for us to have feelings, to hav-'

'Follow me.' The woman started walking off before Rachel had the chance to even get started with her speech. The girl felt compelled to follow. Rachel managed to work out that they were now stood in perfect view of the back gate. 'Since Daddy Fabray got home from his year long business trip, she's been escaping out here about once a week. I believe she has found herself some other guy to whore around with.'

'Quinn isn't like that.'

'You don't know, no-one knows with the Fabrays. She heads down this street and then turns right, the rest you'll have to figure out for yourself. Goodnight.'

'Um, thank-you...' was all that Rachel could mutter before the woman had disappeared into darkness- it was as if it was a scene right out of some old horror movie. She wanted to chase after that woman so badly and shout just as offensive things back to her as what she had said about Quinn. No, if she was going to find Quinn tonight she was going to have to go searching. Now.

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading this! Sorry for errors and such :/ I'm so happy 'Glee' is finally back on TV- can't wait to watch the first ep. again properly soon :D Please let me know what you thought of this chapter/this story so far? Hope you have a good rest of the week, love to you all Xx**


	9. The Night Stalker Pt II

**Note: Thank-you so, so much for all of your alerts and reviews on the last chapter and even for taking your time to read this- I appreciate it so much. Okay, so, the 'big' thing when stuff is revealed didn't end up being in this chapter, but it will in the next if you want me to continue? Sorry- it wasn't intentional, I just don't know if I would have had chance to upload this chapter this weekend if I had included it as it is my birthday this weekend, however I will try and update if you want me to? That is also why this chapter is slightly shorter than the others sorry :/. Also, I apologise in advance as I am like half asleep right now- I may re-write this if I read it when I'm in a better state of mind and find that it is really crap... :L**

_**I do not own 'Glee' and I never will...**_

Rachel had been driving around Lima for 20 minutes now, slowly in her father's car. She figured it was the best way to find Quinn as long as she didn't startle her. The brunette had looked everywhere around Quinn's house, but she was nowhere to be seen. Yet the thought of the other girl still powered her on for as long as it would take for her to find her. Rachel could never work it out, but there was something about Quinn, something that just kept pulling her in. The blonde intrigues her, always, which was why even during the past years of her tormenting she would never get back at Quinn, she would never hold it against her. She would just sit back and accept the comments, the rude smirks and frequent slushies because she knew that this was something Quinn needed to do. Quinn needed something to do.

Rachel felt herself being thrown forwards as she involuntarily braked. Brown eyes had been alerted to a small figure near the entrance of McKinley. Down the road was a small library that Rachel was aware about that had a parking lot open all night long and so the petite teen pulled into a space before heading directly towards her high school. For this time of the evening the roads were reasonably calm allowing Rachel to cross in a matter of minutes and be entering the gates into WMHS. She saw it there again, a person who was now curled up on the steps. Quiet sobs broke the silence of the night which caused Rachel's heart to sink immediately at the hopeless cries presumably coming from a female. The Berry girl approached cautiously not knowing who she was going to find or why they were even here. As she got closer, the silhouette was becoming more detailed, and the clearer it got, the more it looked like Quinn. The cries sounded desperate, yet as though the person emitting them had given up caring, given up on the world, given up on life. Rachel felt her heart practically break as she saw flashes of blonde hair and green eyes in the moonlight. She knew those eyes just from one glance; the beautiful colors, the secrets they held and the sadness they failed to hide. They belonged to Quinn Fabray.

'Quinn?' Reaching out her hand, Rachel whispered these words, her soft voice piercing through the night air like a knife through butter. As Rachel's hand came in contact with Quinn's, the taller girl flinched. Quinn sat up immediately, her eyes alert and fearful as she began backing away, staying seated on the step. The brunette slowly followed the blonde, hoping that her hand gestures would help calm the petrified girl. Rachel was still showing her empty hands as Quinn's back collided with the railing, stopping her in her tracks. 'Quinn, it's me... Rachel...' Rachel reached out to Quinn's delicate hands once more. However this time, Quinn didn't try to get away, instead, her hand clung to Rachel's as if it was the one thing keeping her alive. And right now, it was. Fresh tears were still rolling down Quinn's shadowed face. Rachel moved slowly down a step and along allowing her to be closer to Quinn, never breaking their contact. The smaller girl searched desperately for the other's eyes, trying to piece together what had happened, but Quinn's eyes were fixed firmly to the ground. Rachel wrapped her warm arms gently around Quinn's frozen body, who seemed to relax into the hold.

Quinn couldn't take it any longer; she'd had enough of everything, of all the lying, of her now false identity and all of the people she had to turn away when she just wanted to run into the heaven that they were offering her. People like Rachel. Just then, Quinn broke down once again, her loud cries echoing through the empty courtyard. 'Shhh... It's okay...' Rachel began to stroke Quinn's tangled hair- that was until she felt some sort of substance on her fingers which was too thick to be tears. Holding it up to the natural light, the liquid was revealed to her as to be a dark red color. Blood. '...it's okay...' A solitary tear slipped from chocolate eyes. Without realising, both girls had twisted their bodies causing Quinn's head to now be buried in Rachel's lap with the rest of her body curled in a ball. Rachel was panicking internally as fear overwhelmed her. She traced soothing circles on Quinn's lower back with her thumb, her other hand still softly smoothing blonde hair. Rachel's other hand was met with the same substance. Thoughts of what she should do bombarded her mind- she didn't know whether to just take her back to the Fabray's (this only crossed her brain once as she remembered what the woman had said to her earlier), to take her back to her own house or to just call an ambulance. She pulled out her phone from her pocket, after wiping her blood-covered hand on her jacket. Within seconds, the bright light of the torch on Rachel's phone was blinding the two of them, however that was the least of Rachel's worries. The light revealed more injuries covering the now whimpering teen's body. There was a cut along her hairline which was bleeding heavily along with several other wounds which replaced pale skin. Worst of all were the bruises. Rachel studied the ones on her delicate facial features before moving onto the ones along her neck, arms and legs. Along the ex-cheerleader's collarbone and jaw line were also either hickeys or bite marks. Rachel turned off her cell after one final look at the corpse-like body in her embrace, picking the half asleep girl up in her arms after doing so.

Rachel was surprisingly strong for her size as she stood up now carrying the light girl. 'I'm going to take you back to mine okay?' Rachel whispered as Quinn's eye lids fluttered closed, their weight being too heavy for the tired girl to hold open. The sleeping blonde was carried back to a Chevrolet in the library parking lot by Rachel who soothed calming words all the way.

~/*\~

Quinn stirred when she felt the sharp safety belt being pulled tight around her aching body. The past however long had been a blur and this still was. All she knew was now Rachel, who was sat in the driver's seat, interlocked her fingers with the Fabray before raising both of their hands to her mouth where she placed a gentle kiss onto the back of Quinn's bone-white hand. Rachel's voice was only just about audible to Quinn as she promised once again 'It is all going to be okay...'

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading this! Please let me know what you thought of this chapter- as I said, I may re-write this, but please let me know what you think about it anyway and please let me know if you want me to continue or not? Have a great weekend! Xx**


	10. Little Pink Mugs

**Note: Thank-you so much for your reviews and alerts on the previous chapter- it made my birthday waking up to that :) I'm not going to rewrite the last chapter as I wanted to move on with the story and so here, as promised a few chapters ago- this chapter is longer and what happens in the end will be explained in more detail if you want me to continue? Also thank-you to those who wished me a happy birthday! Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

"_**Happy birthday! I hope you have a great weekend. I don´t know how it´s like where you live, but where I´m from it´s customary for the birthday girl to gift something instead of receiving...sooooo, how about another chapter?"- from 'erw-fan'-**_**most definitely- here it is...**

_**I only own 'Glee' if I am also a unicorn who rides to work on a giant whale... like a massive pink one... so yeah... I kind of don't own 'Glee'...**_

'_It is all going to be okay...'_

With those words echoing through her head, Quinn drifted back into the world of sleep. For the past few months, sleep was never appealing to the blonde; it was a terrifying time never knowing what was going to happen. This caused her to get into a routine of waking up every ten minutes on the nights when she gave into the tempting haven. Most times, it was her father's face which she awoke to ready to give her whatever he wanted to do. Relief was all that washed over her as she woke to still see Rachel at her side, allowing her to be calm and careless for once- well, at least a little bit.

~/*\~

Rachel had been sat watching Quinn since they arrived back at her house, her cheeks stained from the tears she had been crying for the blonde. She didn't know how long they had been like this, Quinn laying on the couch with Rachel's quilt covering most of her damaged body and Rachel sat on the floor deep in thought, both still clutching each other's hand firmly. Whatever was going on, Rachel was taking the initiative to make it her business and they will make it through this together no matter the consequence. Rachel's thoughts were interrupted abruptly by the fidgeting girl on the sofa. 'Quinn, what's the matter?' Rachel's eyes were alert as she felt Quinn's grip tighten around her hand. 'Quinn... Quinn, what's going on...?' Rachel's face was now just inches away from Quinn's as her tears splashed onto Quinn's delicate features. 'Come on, wake up... please...' Rachel's voice sounded desperate, despite the girl who was concerning her was only moving slightly, almost as if she was twitching. She brought up her hand again to stroke it through Quinn's blonde hair remembering how this had calmed her down before; it sort of worked as Quinn was no longer moving in the same state, however, now her eyes were wide open as they darted around the unfamiliar room, barely noticing the bloodshot ones right in front of her face. 'God Quinn, you scared me so much.' Her sleepy eyes had now found Rachel's, but her ears hadn't settled on the brunette's voice as she asked concerned,

'Why have you been crying?'

'What?' Rachel asked, putting more space between the two of them. Quinn slowly sat up to allow Rachel the room to sit on the couch too. As her back whacked slightly into the armrest, Quinn winced concerning Rachel again. 'Careful.' Rachel helped her sit up gently, hoping that she would not cause her pain. 'Quinn, what happened to you? You are covered in blood and bruises and are definitely not yourself. That was why I... was crying. You are why I was crying.' Rachel's quiet tone became shy towards the end of her spoken thoughts.

'You don't need to cry over me. You don't need to be upset because of me, you don't even need to think about me. I'll just take up too much wasted space if you do.' Quinn gently used her hand to raise Rachel's chin making her look her in the eyes. 'I'll be fine, I promise.' Quinn dropped her hand from Rachel's chin as she now looked awkwardly away. 'I've taken up too much of your time already.'

'Quinn...' Quinn looked back over to only see tears fall from the other's warm eyes. She shifted her stare back onto the carpeted floor.

'It's okay Rachel.' She wrapped her aching arm around Rachel, hugging her sideways. 'You have nothing to cry about, I promise.' Rachel wiped her tears as she felt almost embarrassed that Quinn was now comforting her.

'Quinn, you're hurt... who did this to you..? What happened?' Rachel asked mater-of-fact-ly.

'Nothing.' Quinn blatantly lied, she couldn't even be bothered to try and hide it now.

'It's not nothing... you can tell me?' Rachel smiled one of her friendly smiles to Quinn who could only feel bad from holding back the truth.

'I don't want to talk about it.' Quinn closed her eyes as she took in a deep breath. She had actually considered telling Rachel but these words were so much easier to say, even if the consequences weren't easier to deal with.

'Okay, well, whenever you're ready, I'm here if you need to talk okay?' Quinn slightly nodded her head gratefully as she smiled a slight thank-you. 'Why don't you come out to the kitchen- I'll make some of my famous hot cocoa?' She asked cheerfully.

'No thank-you, I'm not a massive fan of vegan cocoa.' Quinn smiled playfully, however her eyes and voice still seemed lifeless.

'I could get you some water, or juice?' Rachel smiled back, happy as she saw the ghost of a smile toying with Quinn's bruised lips.

'Water will be fine thank-you.' Quinn's throat was sore, causing this as well as her other words spoken so far to come out slightly croaky.

'One water it is then!' Rachel jumped up off of the couch as she started to head towards the kitchen. 'You coming?' Rachel asked as she flicked on the kitchen light glancing back at the motionless Quinn. Quinn glanced down at her visible skin and torn dress fearing how much more would be revealed in the bright light- so far they had only been seeing due to the dim lamp placed by the couch, which she fretted had revealed more than she had wished. Yet she knew Rachel knew. She remembered the petite star already saying something about blood and bruises. Quinn stood up with a long sigh before slowly slightly limping towards Rachel. The brunette reached into the cupboard and pulled out two mugs, turning to see Quinn struggling to pull out a chair at the table. She was gripping it with one hand, with the other just making contact with the wood. 'Here, let me get that for you.' Rachel put the mugs down on the counter as she rushed over to pull the chair out for Quinn, noticing her swollen wrist through her tight cardigan, but choosing not to mention it. Once she had the taller girl seated, Rachel headed back to the counter, pouring them both some water before sitting back down opposite Quinn- mistake number one. 'Sorry, our dishwasher's broken, so these are all we have.' Rachel apologized as she gestured towards the mugs.

'Its fine thank-you.' Quinn placed her most painful arm on top of the table as she brought the mug to her lips with the other. The liquid soothed her throat momentarily before she blinked back more tears as a memory she would rather forget appeared in the front of her mind.

Rachel studied Quinn's wrist again 'You should get that looked at, your wrist, I mean, but-'

'It'll be fine once the swelling has gone down.' Quinn interrupted Rachel as she placed her mug down on to the wooden surface of the table so that she could use her good arm to move the other gently onto her lap.

'I can take you up to the hospital, your injuries look quite painful, but I'd stay wit-'

'I do NOT need to go to the hospital. I will be fine.' There was mistake number two as Quinn crawled back into her shell. Rachel placed her mug down as she stood up and approached Quinn.

'You don't look fine...' Rachel reached out to put a hand on Quinn's shoulder as she brought the other back up to the side of Quinn's face. Mistake number three. 'Listen, it will be okay, we will jus-'

'GET YOUR FREAKING MAN HANDS OFF OF ME BERRY!' Quinn shouted as she stood up, immediately regretting the movement, but she just continued backing away from Rachel unsuccessfully like earlier in the courtyard. 'I DON'T WANT YOUR PATHETIC LITTLE 'IT WILL ALL BE OKAY'S OR YOUR STUPID LITTLE HOT COCOAS IN YOUR LITTLE PINK MUGS! AND FOR THE LAST TIME, I AM FUCKING FINE!'

'Quinn... yo-you need to calm down... you are obviously a littl-'

'YOU CAN NOT TELL ME TO CALM DOWN! YOU HAVE NO IDEA THE KIND OF PRESSURES I AM UNDER! DO YOU THINK I WANTED YOU TO COME AND FIND ME TONIGHT? I DIDN'T ASK FOR YOU TO FOLLOW ME AND THEN DRAG ME BACK TO YOUR FRIGGING COSY HOME WITH YOUR PERFECT LIFE AND YOUR PERFECT FAMILY! You don't know me and so don't think for one second that you do, 'cause you don't...' Hot tears were once again trickling down her cheeks as they spilled over the wall she was failing to keep up.

'_I_ was the one that found you tonight Quinn. _I _was the one that brought you home so that you didn't die on those steps tonight. _I _saw the tears you cried tonight and _I_ cried with you as the real Quinn Fabray was beginning to shine through. Because I don't know who I'm talking to right now, but I don't like her very much. I don't like her at all.' Rachel new that her dads would be awake right now due to both of their outbursts, but she didn't care about that one bit.

'Thanks for the water Rachel.' Quinn's voice cracked as she held back as much emotion as she could. With that final sentence, Quinn turned and left, leaving Rachel stood in the kitchen staring at the front door. Rachel cried more than she had in a long time as the door slamming echoed in her ears. All she wanted to do was to help Quinn, but she couldn't even do that. It took twenty minutes before Rachel raised her head off of its place on her arms. Her fathers were both sat opposite her with a mug of steaming cocoa in front of her.

'Hey sweetie' The lighter skinned man smiled.

'What's up with our little Berry, hey? We heard shouting coming from downstairs and came to find you like this- what happened?' The taller man spoke.

'It's nothing' Rachel sniffed whilst realising that she was using the same words which Quinn had not too long ago. 'It's just... when I came back from dropping Qui-Quinn's bag off, I wasn't tired and so I sat and watched TV for a bit. Then one of my friends from school came knocking at the door asking to stay the night. I didn't think you would mind so I said to her that she could sleep on the couch and then we got into a massive argument because we both over reacted. That was all, I'm just tired which is probably why I am still blowing things out of proportion now.' Rachel stared at the steam growing out of her drink hoping that her fathers wouldn't be able to tell that she was lying.

'Okay honey.' The Berry man wearing glasses spoke. 'Now drink your cocoa and then we can all get off to bed okay? I think we all need some sleep.'

'Thank-you dads.' Rachel sipped slowly at her hot cocoa before going to 'bed'.

Once Rachel reached her room, she began searching for various objects and within ten minutes was back outside with a heavy bag on her back. She had packed a flashlight, mace spray, her phone, a jumper and a blanket, knowing that if Quinn was still out on the streets then she would be frozen- if and when she found her. Quinn couldn't have gone far, Rachel knew that remembering the girl's slight limp earlier as well as her tiredness. The equally tired teen powered on through the night as she searched the school and other locations around Lima. Quinn was no-where, no-where at all. Rachel didn't know how she had got here, she didn't even know where she was as everything appeared different at night. She knew that she was walking along the side walk of a major road going somewhere far from Lima- signposts constantly alerted Rachel to this. It was a while until Rachel heard noises other than those common around Lima at night along with the speeding cars that occasionally flew passed. But when it did come, the haunting sound was the best thing of the night so far- or morning? The slight whimpering seemed like a faint light to Rachel, beckoning her to come nearer and nearer. Rachel sprinted down the road, the noise loudening with every step. The panting girl came to a stop under an underpass where the noise rang through her ears.

'Quinn, it's me...' Rachel noticed Quinn curled up in a corner. Quinn wanted desperately to be able to apologize to Rachel, to make everything better, but all that she could do was cry. 'I'm so sorry about what I said and did to upset you. I shouldn't have done that... I'm really, really sorry.' Rachel spoke from the hysterical girl's side. Quinn softened at Rachel's body as she pulled her into her embrace. Both girls laid there and cried; that was all they could do- no speech was involved at all, just tears. Rachel had pulled the blanket over the two of them in the hope of sheltering them from the worst of the cold night air. The smaller girl was laid with her back pressed up against the wall whilst Quinn rested her head on Rachel's stomach, the rest of her body curled into Rachel's side. This was how they eventually cried themselves to sleep...

~/*\~

'Wake up! I said wake-up.' Quinn awoke as fear ran down her spine- that was definitely not the voice she wanted to hear first thing in the morning. It was _him._ Rachel woke as soon as she felt Quinn's body leave her side.

'Wha-' Rachel's vision cleared revealing the man in front of her 'Mr. Fabray? What are you doing here?'

'I've come to collect my daughter.' He spat. Rachel felt Quinn's hand grip her own- she was now by her side. He turned to Quinn, 'What were you thinking of? Running away.'

'I'm sorry daddy.' Quinn looked down, knowing what the punishment would be for even looking him in the eyes when he didn't want her to.

'Listen, if you don't want to be grounded you need to not get detentions. Maybe you are too distracted with that stupid little singing club...' Lies. All lies that Rachel was learning to see through.

'I'm sorry daddy.' Quinn repeated again, tightening her grip on Rachel's hand.

'Now come on, you need to pack your bags; we're leaving.' He looked down at Rachel with disgust before turning his focus back to Quinn. 'Now say goodbye to... this thing...'

Quinn stood up pulling Rachel up with her. 'Goodbye Rachel.' Quinn enveloped Rachel in the first hug she had properly given someone in a while. 'Thank-you...' Quinn kissed Rachel's forehead, never wanting to let her go.

'That is enough! We are leaving.' Russell grabbed Quinn's still swollen wrist as he dragged her away from Rachel, who stood watching the pair of Fabrays. As they were about to disappear around the corner, Quinn turned her head over her shoulder, looking back at Rachel. The stationary brunette swore she saw tears welling in the other's eyes. They stared at each other for one last time until Quinn whipped her head back round to stare at her feet. It appeared that the man had said something to Quinn as her body froze as his jaw moved. He had also pulled down sharply on her wrist too. Rachel had tried to be strong for Quinn all night, but it had failed every time. As it did now as the blonde silently disappeared.

~/*\~

Glee club was weird without Quinn the next day- her transfer also meant that there were not enough members. The club performed a number which they had been working on for a few weeks- 'Use Somebody' by Kings of Leon (minus two of the glee club members. Obviously Quinn was one of them (Rachel sang the whole song thinking of nobody but Quinn) and Santana was the other missing- she had taken it upon herself to do some investigating.

The Latina was stood now in Quinn's room as she muttered 'Holy sweet mother of hell...'

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading this! I'm really sorry for any mistakes and such, but hopefully there weren't as many as in the previous one... :L The song will be explained next chapter as will what Santana has found... if you want me to continue? So this part is kind of the start of when everything is sort of revealed... to the reader that is. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter/this story so far- it would mean so much to me? Please also let me know if you want me to continue or not? Have a great day and thank-you to you all again! Much love Xx**


	11. Use Somebody'

**Note: Thank-you all so so much for all of your alerts, favorites, reviews and even just for reading this- it makes me so happy and yeah, just thank-you sooooo much! Also thank-you for my birthday messages. I'm really sorry that I haven't updated in ages, but it's a long story so I'm not going to bore you ;) Anywhoo, I don't know what you will think of this chapter- I knew what I wanted to happen in this chapter for like months now, however I couldn't really put it to 'paper' that well so please let me know what you think and if you don't like this chapter I can always rewrite if you want me to? I hope you like this chapter! (sorry if the formatting is a bit dodgy...- **_**italics**_** are flashbacks and then it skips between Santana's, the glee club's and Quinn's perspectives in 'present' day)**

_**I don't own 'Glee'! (as you all know :L) and the song is 'Use Somebody' by Kings of Leon.**_

'**Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.  
>Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.<br>Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.  
>Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.'<strong>

The lights went up on stage revealing the New Directions one by-one as they sang out with their hearts. The kids were wearing their white and black outfits as they have done for many numbers before.

'**I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see,  
>Painted faces fill the places I can't reach.<br>You know that I could use somebody,  
>You know that I could use somebody.'<strong>

Nine of them slowly shifted backwards as they began simple choreography in the background whilst Finn and Rachel took the leads with Santana's and Quinn's absence being rather noticeable...

'**Someone like you and all you know and how you speak,  
>Countless lovers under cover of the street.<br>You know that I could use somebody,  
>You know that I could use somebody,<br>Someone like you.'**

Santana was still stood outside of the Fabray home, yet Santana being Santana, she knew how to get in- it was an easy job for her, especially as the door wasn't even locked properly. Santana slowly turned after shutting the door behind her. For a moment she was frozen with shock, not wanting to believe the sight before her.

There was dried red liquid over one of the walls...

'**Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.  
>Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.<br>Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.  
>Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.'<strong>

_He was holding Quinn firm by the shoulders as she slammed her back repeatedly into the wall, ensuring that her body hit into it hard with every shove. Her eyes were red from crying as she whispered silent pleas for him to stop._

There was short blonde hair scattered over the floor...

_He had grabbed her hair and was holding it low behind her head as he continued to pound her skull into the solid wall._

'**Off in the night while you live it up I'm off to sleep,  
>Waging wars to shake the poet and the beat.<br>I hope it's gonna make you notice.  
>I hope it's gonna make you notice,'<strong>

Quinn was in the car driving off to some town which she had never heard of. Her mother, Judy, was fast asleep in the passenger seat whilst Quinn was sat in the back, like she hadn't done since she was a child. Her vacant and lost face was hidden behind the tinted windows, hiding her from the outside world.

'**Someone like me,  
>Ooh-way-o, Ooh-way-o.<br>Someone like me,  
>Ooh-way-o, Ooh-way-o.<br>Someone like me,  
>Ooh-way-o, Ooh-way-o.<br>Somebody.  
>Ooh-way-o, ooh-way-o.'<strong>

The Latina found pieces of shattered glass in the trash can...

_Quinn's head jolted to the right as her father threw his glass at her, causing it to shatter into tiny pieces._

Santana raced upstairs, hoping that she would find Quinn safe in her room, but she didn't even make it up the stairs before another bloodstain covering the carpet near a wall caught her eye...

_Quinn's battered body crumpled on to the floor, her head was pounding and her insides were throbbing. The pain was too unbearable to move._

The brunette now found herself standing in Quinn's en suite, seeing the mirror Quinn had broken the other morning scattered over the white tiles.

'**I'm ready now,  
>I'm ready now,<br>I'm ready now,  
>I'm ready now,<br>I'm ready now,  
>I'm ready now,<br>I'm ready now.'**

The Fabray car pulled to a stop at a gas station near Toledo. Russell had been out of the car for about five minutes now, leaving Judy still asleep and a petrified Quinn. The youngest blonde felt her heart pound faster as she heard heavy footsteps nearing her door, dreading what was to come. Mr. Fabray violently pulled open the door, grabbing Quinn's shaking arm. He pulled her up harshly out of the car as he began leading her round the back of the building.

Quinn knew that they were coming close to Michigan as she often stopped here when she used to go to ballet, but she had never been here with her father before, even when she used to be his little angel.

'**Someone like you, somebody,  
>Someone like you, somebody,<br>Someone like you, somebody.'**

Rachel, as per usual, had damp cheeks and eyes from crying during this song. However, this wasn't her usual Rachel Berry crying 'every time I sing a solo' (even though this wasn't a solo). No, this was coming from her heart as her mind placed Quinn sat in a seat a couple of rows from the back. All that was going through her mind was Quinn; where she was, what was going on last night, if she was okay, if she was even alive, if- too many questions without answers.

'**I've been roaming around, I was looking down at all I see.'**

Santana gently picked up the loose razor blade which she had found next to the sink. The shining metal possessed a bloody sharp edge. The brunette's brown eyes began to be misted with welling tears.

~/*\~

A loud thud rang through Quinn's ears as her father pressed her up against the brick wall of the shop at the gas station.

'Now you listen to me...' Quinn looked around at the floor, desperately trying to avoid Russell's medusa stare. 'Look at me!' He whispered low with disgust blanketing his voice. The shaking girl slowly brought up her eyes to find his face mere inches away from her own. It took less than a second for Russell to blind the trembling girl momentarily as his fist collided with the centre of Quinn's face. 'What have you been telling that Lopez girl?' He closed even more of the distance in between them.

'Santana? I haven't said anyt-' Mr. Fabray's hand clamped around Quinn's mouth, muting anything that tried to escape her lips.

'Well, it just so happens that I ran into her step-mother whilst in the shop- she said that Santana had received a couple of strange texts from you? Saying things like 'please come over to mine, I need you' or 'thank-you for being there for me, you're a great friend even if I haven't always been that nice to you- you're like the sister I never had' and all that sort of crap.' Quinn wasn't even the one who sent those texts, but taking the blame was always easier than the consequences of telling the truth. ' Did you forget about Frannie? That you actually have a real sister, one that always tries her best and makes the right decisions. She grew up into a little angel, unlike you... She's not a worthless piece of messed-up slutty shit like you are. Now you will never speak to any of those dumb-ass kids from Lima again; I can't have those sorts of questions being asked. Do you understand?' He slowly removed his hand in order for Quinn to answer to her 'daddy'.

'You can't decide who my friends are, and if you've got a problem with them, you can say it to my face and don't tak-' Quinn stopped mid-sentence as pain seized through her skull spreading down around her neck. Her father now moved his hands down to Quinn's hips as he checked around for any other people or CCTV that they would be picked up on. Once he had confirmed the coast was clear, he placed himself less than an inch away from his daughter as he moved one of his hands to the bare skin of her hip just below the waistline of her sweatpants and her underwear.

'So this is how you want to play is it?' He lowered his hand slightly, however it remained on her hip.

'No, please, no... Please...' It had taken Quinn a while to even register what he was planning on doing out in public.

'I'll only stop if you never talk to those bastards again...' He began to make circles with his fingers as he slowly moved them across her skin.

'No... No!' Quinn's first response was to what she was sure he was about to do, however, the second was in the defence of her friends; he could call her names and make her feel smaller than a speck of dust all he liked, but verbally attacking her friends made Quinn lose it.

'Oh, look who's suddenly found her voice...' He breathed into her neck as she stared up at the sky, begging for help of any kind. His cold hands were becoming closer and closer to her centre, however his other hand still gripped her hip firmly stopping her from getting away. _Why can't you just keep your mouth shut! _Quinn berated herself mentally.

'Please... just stop... I'm... I'm sorry...' Quinn struggled to choke these words as her throat tightened and her breathing became rapid. He couldn't do this, not here...

'Oh yeah? Then promise you will never speak to any of them ever again or you will be way more than sorry... You understand?'

'Okay, I promise, just please... don't...' Quinn's eyes were screwed tightly shut wishing that she could be the blackness before her eyes. She felt his hand leave her body, making her completely limp.

'Now take your fucking pills... I don't want to have to deal with anymore of your crazy today, or ever- we had enough of that when you were little.' He wrapped her hand around the bottle of tablets which he had just taken out of his pocket. The bottled was labelled 'Methylphenidate' with Quinn's full name written underneath it. The blonde had to quickly re-learn how to stand as her father's other hand left her hip leaving her to support herself. 'You have two minutes until I want you back in the car.' With that, he turned around the corner.

~/*\~

Santana's gaze fell upon the small garbage can, which she soon found held similar blades, however they were blunt and useless. Despite what else there was on show within the Fabray's walls, possibly the worst was yet to come. Santana pulled out a large parcel of tissues from the metal bin. She unwrapped it slowly as her curiosity got the better of her. _Holy crap _was all that Santana could mutter as she looked at the pregnancy tests which the tissues had been hiding. The first which Santana looked at read negative, however, the other six read positive.

'Holy sweet mother of hell...'

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! Again sorry for any mistakes, if the formatting is funny or if you didn't like this chapter- please let me know what you thought of it; reviews mean so much to me? Thank-you again and have a good day! Xx**


	12. Bring Berry

**Note: Thank-you so much for all of your alerts, favorites and reviews! :D :D :D love you all :) Once again, I am truly sorry for not updating sooner as I am really busy right now :/ This chapter, however, is possibly the longest yet or the second longest. Most of this chapter is sort of a link, but it is an important link for some of what will happen next (if you want me to continue). As always, I very much welcome reviews so please let me know what you think? I hope you enjoy this chapter...**

_**Never in a million years will I own the amazing 'Glee'!**_

'_Holy sweet mother of hell...'_

The Latina couldn't take any more of what she was seeing- okay, so she didn't know exactly what had happened but a whole list of possibilities were gathering in her head. Santana did the only thing she could think of right now and that was to ring the blonde. Santana heard the ringing on her end of the phone, but, as she feared, Quinn's phone was ringing in the next room. _Shit. _Santana was in Quinn's bedroom in seconds and had already begun searching through her drawers to find her phone. At last, Santana found it hidden under the ex-cheerleader's pillow. Santana's fingers entered in Quinn's password which she had memorized from freshman year. The teen searched through her old friend's sent messages until one in particular caught her eye which read 'Help Me'. Santana remembered reading that text but she, like the other two people she had sent it to had figured that it was some kind of a joke or she was just drunk.

'Why was I so fucking blind?' Santana muttered under her breath as she remembered her hurtful reply followed by the memory of the message confirming that her deleting had worked. She pulled out her own phone again as she tapped out a quick text.

~/*\~

'Okay, good guys, there just... It just seems like something's missing...' Mr. Schuester clapped his hands together as he walked up towards the stage.

'Er, you mean like two of our members?' Puck asked sarcastically from his place on stage.

'No, although we do need them to even vocals out a bit more, it just seems like it is lacking the element of hope that you guys are normally so good at bringing to these sort of numbers. I mean, Rachel, this is really unlike you, you were off in your own littl- I should say _big_ world. Okay everyone, take five.'

The majority of the club migrated into the seats in the auditorium, taking seats in the front row. Finn's, Puck's and Mercedes' phones all lit up in their pockets in unison. All three pulled them out as they looked across to each other.

**Get your assess over to the Fabray's house now, Quinn needs us & bring berry!**

'Mister Schuster, may we be excused?' Finn shot up as did the others when they learnt it was from Santana.

'Guys you can't just walk in and out of rehearsal whenever you feel like; we have sectionals coming up soon. Do you want to be even more embarrassed than when we came twelfth at nationals? We may not even get through sectionals if you are going to be like that.'

'You don't understand, this is important.' Mercedes stated as she already began to gather her things.

Kurt rubbed his temples 'Can't we have a break this once? I might be speaking for myself but I am exhausted and I am not risking getting bags under my eyes when we could just finish this rehearsal tomorrow.'

'Fine,' the three who received Santana's text were all ready to leave before Will had even spoken 'but you all must come back after school tomorrow, we are not finished here.'

'I don't mean to burst your bubbles here, but show choir is important. If we even want to be able to compete against Vocal Adrenaline we all need to practise and up our game. I mean I know I haven't exact-'

'Shut it Rachel,' Mercedes interrupted as she paused next to the smaller girl, 'you're coming with us, look at this.' Mercedes pulled out her phone to show Rachel the message.

The girl's face visibly dropped as she muttered whilst trying to contain her sobs 'We need to go. Now.'

~/*\~

The Fabray's house looked no different, it still looked somewhat like a fairy-tale castle shrunken down into a slightly larger-than-average-sized-house. Santana was sat waiting at a little wooden table under the shade of one of the trees. The four teens all poured out of Mercedes' car instantaneously as soon as the car had come to a stop.

'What's up?' Puck asked as they walked towards the table. Santana looked up from Quinn's phone.

'Grab a seat.' Santana muttered as she turned off the blonde's mobile.

'What are we even doing here?' Finn asked.

'Quinn lived with three of you, you must know some stuff about her.' Santana replied, her seriousness worrying all of them.

'So why is Rachel here?' Mercedes motioned to Rachel who was still stood up and was further away from Santana than the others.

'I figured we could use her. I mean, she claims to be 'psychic' or whatever, and she seems to have taken sticking her giant nose into other people's business up as a hobby.'

'Hey, leave Rachel alone.' Finn turned to smile at Rachel who just shifted her eyes awkwardly before speaking

'What is wrong with Quinn, is she here? Santana, why were you even here, because you seem to be not ver-'

'Zip it hobbit or my fist will become quite familiar with your face!' Santana snapped at the slightly taken aback girl.

'Woah, cool it Santana.' Puck was for once trying to be the peace-maker. 'So why did you nearly get us chucked out of the glee club?'

'Whilst Quinn was living with you, or when you went round her house or anything, did anything seem kinda... odd?'

'What do you mean Santana?' Finn was just as confused as the others.

'Did she ever...' Santana stared down at her lap whilst trying to figure out the right words to say, '... did she ever speak about her home life? Finn, you've been here loads?'

'Yeah, I've been round here a reasonable amount of times, but nothing has ever really seemed weird. Why do you ask?'

Santana didn't want to answer Finn's question and so she just shot him with another. 'What about her parents?'

'Her mom seems quite nice, but I've only met her dad once and that was when he kicked Quinn out.'

'And what was he like?' Santana felt like she was finally getting somewhere. All this time Rachel still stood awkwardly on the side, becoming more and more concerned by the increasing seriousness in Santana's tone and questions.

'Why are you asking all of these questions?' Puck spoke up 'You used to come here often and you've met her family?'

'Please, just trust me.' Santana turned her attention back to Finn 'What was her father like?'

'He was quick to react when he found out about the baby and it was him who made the decision to throw her out. He seemed a bit... controlling, the way he kept saying about when she was younger and he mentioned stuff about her sister.' Finn trailed off towards the end. His words, however, managed to snap Rachel out of the daze which no one realised she had fallen in to.

'Santana, I need to talk to you.' For once, the petite girl was not afraid to look the fiery Latina straight in the eyes.

'Why?'

'It's important.' Rachel stood her ground.

Santana sighed 'Fine.' She stood up and followed Rachel around the corner to where the others would be unable to hear what she was about to say.

'Santana... I was with Quinn last night.'

'Oh, Berry, that's a new one! Did you have fun?'

'Wait, what?' Rachel rolled her eyes at the laughing girl 'NO, not like that. Listen, I'm- I'm concerned about her, and I know some things, but I can't tell anyone, so just please tell me why you brought us here?'

'Follow me.' Her reply was quiet, breaking the momentarily awkward silence between the two brunettes. Rachel slowly followed Santana as she led her back to the house. 'I'm just taking Berry inside. You need to wait out here.' Santana called across to the careless teens before going right up to the front door. Santana paused slightly before re-entering the gates of hell. She pushed lightly on the door allowing her and Rachel to enter before closing the door behind her.

'So why are we in here? We could get arrested for this!' Rachel panicked as she began to list the laws they were breaking, her voice was like an angry whisper.

'You don't need to keep your voice down, no one is here you know. Come here.' Rachel was still stood by the door whilst Santana was in the doorway which led into the next room. She motioned for the smaller girl to join her.

'What the...' Rachel's hoarse, but quiet words dashed the silence. Her soft brown eyes scanned over the blood on the wall. There were several large marks with the highest being slightly over five feet from the ground and the lowest spread across the skirting board. These were surrounded by small splashes which looked as though someone had splattered red paint over the wall. But the wall was no canvas and this was not from some little kid flicking a paint brush. This wasn't a perfect fairy-tale world where there was no evil and everyone's dreams came true.

Rachel's mind was racing as she began to connect the dots. 'Santana, I think Quinn is in trouble, like really big trouble, but I have no idea where her parents have taken her, when her dad came to get her this morning he just said they were leaving and Quinn didn't do anything and I'm really scared.' The words just kept tumbling from her lips.

'Okay, first of all, if we are going to work together on this then you need to keep the essay long speeches down to a minimum and second of all this is not all.'

'What do you mean? Like what?' Her eyes grew wide with even more alarm.

'Well there are other areas like this around the house and broken glass in the bin. I went up to her room but it seemed perfectly normal until I went into her bathroom; her mirror was shattered across the floor and there was more blood on the floor. There were also a load of loose blunt razor blades in the trash and... there were... Rachel, I think... I think Quinn may be pregnant.' Rachel could only stare at the wall in front of her, but her mind was replaying the events of the past twenty-four hours. Santana studied the stunned girl, waiting for her most probably manic reaction. Rachel just stood furrowing her eyebrows. What Santana had just told her had immediately bombarded all of her thoughts before she could even register that the cheerleader called her by her first name. As Rachel blinked, she brought her tear-filled eyes back up to Santana before she spoke calmly, yet deadly serious

'We need to find out where they are headed.'

'Already one step ahead of you. The trash was empty but I found some paperwork in the shredder.' Santana was now sat at a small table in the corner which Rachel had failed to notice. Spread across the immaculate wooden surface was the tiny strips of paper which Santana had retrieved from the shredder.

'What is it? It looks like some sought of confirmation or something.'

'That's what I thought. Get me the sticky-tape- it is in the second drawer down on the right when you enter the kitchen.' Santana instructed. Rachel just nodded her head slightly before she slowly made her way to the kitchen, taking in all of what she could of Quinn's 'home'. Once she reached the kitchen, she headed straight over to the window overlooking the back-yard. Close to the building she saw a hot tub, but beyond that were just the occasional beautiful flowers and plants scattered around. Their garden was of quite high standards, apart from the heap of blackened ash in the middle surrounded by various pieces of burnt wood and other various items which Rachel couldn't make out. 'Would you hurry up with that tape already?' Tape. Rachel had completely forgotten what she had even come in here to get.

'Yeah, sorry.' was Rachel's simple vague response. The brunette found the tape where Santana said it was- second drawer down in the counter on the right. On top of the counter was a pad of sticky-notes. Rachel couldn't help but be intrigued as to what had last been written and so, in true crime solver fashion, Rachel grabbed the nearby pencil and began to shade in the top piece of paper. Sure enough, Rachel could make out numbers and a few words.

'Quit stalling Berry!' She heard Santana practically yell from the other room. Okay, so they were no longer on first name basis. Rachel walked back into the kitchen after taking one last look out the window. Rachel had grabbed the piece of paper and stuffed it into her pocket before passing Santana the item she had been sent to find.

'I can't make much sense of this, the writing is too damn small.'

'The picture doesn't look that clear either.' Rachel unhelpfully pointed out. Santana held her head in her hands, resting her elbows on the table. Rachel stood behind the girl.

'Coger a esta!'

'Santana, just leave it.'

'How else do you suggest we find out where the hell they are going?'

'I found a phone number for possibly an estate agent; let me ring it and that might tell us something.' Before Santana could reply, Rachel pulled out her mobile along with the sheet of paper. The girl began to pace up and down as she listened to it ring.

~/*\~

Quinn brought her knees up to her chest as she gazed out of the window. Her life was crashing down around her even more than before- why did Rachel have to find her last night? Quinn's cheeks stung as she felt the familiar feeling of tears run down them. She had never wanted to be this way- never good enough; no matter how hard she tried she would never be just right, she wasn't perfect. She regretted every moment of her life, even back to when she was little- to before she could even remember. Her lost eyes fell down to look at her arms wrapped around her legs. Even with the thick material covering them, she could still see the scars along with the raw ones from that morning. She had lost count of the number of times she had cut, when she had done it or where. It was just a blur that began to put a black mark across her life since that summer's day...

_The day she first did it never left her mind. It was a few days into summer vacation and her sister had come to visit for the weekend along with her husband and one year old daughter. Quinn didn't know what happened, something just snapped during those two days. Beth. Seeing her little niece transported all of her thoughts to her own little daughter. She never wanted to give up the little girl, but she had to. She couldn't keep her. No matter how badly she wanted her back in her arms though, she had always decided that she had made the right choice. Beth was going to have a better life without her, and that was all that mattered. Quinn locked herself in her room on Sunday night, refusing to come out. She went without food or drink and she had nothing to do. Quinn just laid there on her bed letting out all of the pain that had built up inside of her for the past years. She laid and cried for hours, unaware of the time passing through the night. She went on like this for days, like a zombie. She would only leave her room to use the bathroom and her mom eventually managed to get her to at least drink the occasional sip of water. When Wednesday came, Judy decided that she needed to get Quinn to talk to her, and if she didn't then maybe someone at the hospital would be successful. _

_The older Fabray knocked slightly on the almost closed door before entering._

'_How are you Quinny?' Quinn just sat up in bed as her mom walked towards her. The silent girl's tears had subsided to a stop a while ago as her eyes grew dry as though she had no more tears left to shed. She hugged her knees as she stared into the distance. 'Hey, Quinny, why don't you talk to your mom, sweetie? What's up?' She sat on the bed next to Quinn and began to rub her shoulder slightly. 'You can talk to me you know? Please Quinny.' Quinn could hear the heartbreak in her mother's voice. She wanted to do as her mom asked and share what was inside with somebody. But she couldn't; it was like there were no words to come out or as though her mouth was paralysed. Judy sighed as she wrapped an arm around her daughter who rested her aching head on her shoulder. Quinn was thankful to have her mom even if she was never good at the mom-type things, at least she was trying. They stayed like this until Judy fell asleep. Quinn peeled herself away from her mother as she collected a blanket to lie on top of the sleeping woman. With shaky steps, Quinn walked over to her wardrobe and opened the doors. In the corner was a cardboard-box which Quinn opened to reveal her childhood toys. Quinn pulled out several teddies from near the surface along with various parts of the stuffed toys which had fallen off over time. Quinn sat down inside the small cupboard as she began to sob, hugging the teddies close. From a small jewellery box beside the box, she pulled out a needle and thread which were in her small sewing kit. Quinn began to gently stitch the toys back together. Over time, the shattered girl managed to fix her childhood joys._

_Quinn was obviously aware of self-harming and what it was, but she had never really understood it or even put much thought towards it. For some reason though, her eyes were drawn to the relatively sharp implement in her hand. Before she knew what she was doing, Quinn dug the needle into the skin of her forearm, dragging it along to rip the skin. She repeated this action until her hands were difficult to move accurately. The pain darted through her arms, distracting her from the latter in her heart. However, the pain didn't hurt; it was the only cure that was to tear her apart in the months to come. But that didn't matter, not for now. Quinn gave in to the weight of her eyelids and seamlessly fell into a peaceful sleep._

That was before the true nightmare had come.

~/*\~

'Hello... hello, yes... I'm not sure if you can, but have you spoken to Mr and Mrs Fabray recently?... Yes, I am a family friend... No, I wasn't aware of that...'

'Berry this is never going to work.' Santana scoffed. Rachel immediately put her hand over the end of her mobile as she whispered back

'It won't if you keep on talking! Sorry, I missed that...' Rachel turned her attention back to the woman on the other end of the phone 'No, I don't sorry... No, no, there is no need... Are you sure?... Okay, thank-you anyway... Goodbye.'

'I told you it was never going to work.' Santana reiterated.

Rachel began to type something into her mobile. 'Ah, but, I do know where they are going.'

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! I am sorry for any mistakes etc... Please let me know what you think and if you want me to continue (if you do, I promise the next chapter should be more exciting/ interesting than this one)? Thank-you again and have a great week! Xx**


	13. Will You Promise Not to get Mad?

**Note: Thank-you so, so much for alerts, favourites and reviews on last chapter! :D First of all, I'm really sorry that I haven't updated sooner- I have been trying but I haven't had much time to write (basically, this stupid bitch has told teachers that a group of us are taking drugs at school- which I promise I am not- and so we have been having searches and sniffer dogs and such as well as the teachers paying close attention to us and so I have been spending most of my time doing pointless school work. Also, my friends, unfortunately, have been doing drugs for a while so we have also had to try and sort it out with them so that they don't end up in prison (or wherever teens get sent)) **

**Okay, I don't expect that you read all that as it was a very long explanation, but basically, I am really sorry and here is the next chapter, which I really hope you like! :)**

_**I don't own 'Glee', otherwise the world would be a very different place.**_

'Where are you going Berry!' Santana shouted after Rachel who was already half way down the road.

'I'm going to find Quinn!'

'Oh, ha ha, very clever… Where is she?' Santana began to jog, but still failed to catch up with the power-walking brunette. Rachel turned suddenly on her heel as she quietened her voice

'I can't tell you, you just need to get the others home and forget about all of this. If you give me your number I'll let you know if I find her.'

'You have my number.' Santana was now stood opposite Rachel as she shook her head, slightly out of breath.

'It has come to my attention that the last three numbers you have given me have all been fakes. I mean I don't see why you insist on not giving me your number as you really don't know what you might miss out on. Like, if it happened that w- No. Anyway,' Rachel cut off her own rant herself this time. 'I need to go soon otherwise I will have no chance of finding them.'

'Okay, I'll get your number off of the others then I'll text you so you have mine, okay?' Rachel nodded 'You better tell me as soon as you find her. We need answers.' Santana tightened her pony tail.

'Goodbye Santana.' Rachel smiled as she nodded her head before turning around to walk briskly off in the opposite direction. Santana turned just after Rachel as she walked back to the Fabray's house to tell the others to go home.

~/*\~

Rachel had lost track of time of how long she had been on the road for- she was far from Lima and had left Ohio about twenty minutes ago. Rachel just about heard her phone ringing over the top of her musicals playlist which was blasting out of her stereo. The girl pulled off the road at the nearest exit, parking on the side of a small road. When the brunette answered her phone, she learnt it was Santana who she only told that she was safe, but nowhere near where the Fabrays were going.

'Oh, and Santana?' Rachel remembered what she needed to ask just before she hung up.

'What?' Santana snapped at Rachel who swore she could feel the Latina's eyes burning holes through her down the phone.

'If my dads ring could you please tell them I am round your house tonight and that we are working on a glee project or something? It's just I need a cover.'

'Yeah, sure. And Brittany's round here tonight so you can tell them that she is as well if needs be.'

'Thank-you Santana.'

'I have Quinn's phone by the way, so don't try calling her again.'

'Oh, sorry about that... Also, if either of my dads call and ask about my-' Rachel's phone went dead.

~/*\~

'Don't tell me that you have changed your mind about that damn house!...' Quinn sank down lower in her seat as she listened to the rage in her father's voice, '... No, I am not going to just forget about it!... I'll show you what you can do with your damn house, I'm coming right up there and I will shove it-' He realised he had been hung up on 'Well, screw you!' He all but muttered as he put it back in his pocket. As soon as the youngest blonde heard his heavy footsteps becoming louder, she squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she went back to 'sleep'. Quinn had no idea where they were; it was quiet- obviously no longer on any major road at all, but that was all that she could tell. However, Quinn didn't expect him to open up _her _door instead of his, nor did she expect him to yell at her mom 'Get the hell out of this car, now.', his tone deadly serious.

~/*\~

Rachel sang along loudly to the music blasting out of the car. She had chosen (once her other playlist had ended), after much debate to put on her wake up playlist as sleep began to warp her brain- which was weird for Rachel considering the time of the day. 'Just got to keep on moving.' Rachel muttered shortly after the song had finished as she drove innocently along the busy road, no idea what was going on not too far away.

~/*\~

Quinn squeezed her eyes tightly closed as she felt the familiar trickle of tears leaking down the sides of her face. She hurt like hell. Russell was practically straddling her now as he threw careless punches and slaps in Quinn's direction. His fists mainly landed in her face, this time making sure to leave marks over the pale girl's skin, making sure that he ruined that face which he had wasted so much money on perfecting and protecting. His large hands gripped tightly at her shoulders, before throwing her back into the seats she was laid on. Quinn had always thought that car seats were reasonably comfortable, at least most of the time. But this just sent even worse pain ripping through her back.

'Stupid fucking girl... This is all because of you!' He hammered down his closed fist onto the centre of her chest with every syllable, much like he had 'knocked' on the door the first night he returned to Lima. Quinn let out several heavier breaths as her father's motion sent odd sensations up through her throat before the pain arrived to the already bruised area. 'IT'S BECAUSE OF YOU!' Russell moved his right hand up as he clamped his fingers around Quinn's jaw- his fingers across one cheek and his thumb on the other. 'YOU HEAR ME? THIS IS ALL OF YOUR DAMN FAULT! You make me sick.' He spat his last sentence right up against Quinn's face. He leant down even closer to Quinn's face, biting hard on her bottom lip which was being pushed forward by his hand. He wasn't satisfied until he could taste the now familiar tang of blood. His head still hung no more than an inch in front of hers. Quinn dared to open her eyes, revealing her empty bloodshot orbs to her enraged father. Mr. Fabray's eyes took the form of a slit as he stared into the green before him, seeing the internal pain and sorrow momentarily before making his next move- he picked up her slightly limp body before throwing his 'little angle' with all of his strength. Quinn flew across the vehicle before the solid car door sent her crashing back down, the glass of the window shattering slightly, but not breaking. The fragile blonde furrowed her eyebrows above her shut eyes which were completely dry of tears.

The next hour or so was just a blur to Quinn, but from the motion she was able to work out that they were back on the main road travelling again. The young adult felt as though she was back in her seat, however she didn't know for sure. Next thing she knew; she was being lifted into hard and unwelcoming arms. As she slightly opened her eyes, the blinding sunlight ordered them to shut immediately. How long ago had the car stopped again? After that, her back collided with an unfamiliar, yet firm surface.

The next time she tried to open her heavy eyes, all she saw was blackness reflecting off of all of the boundaries of this confined space.

~/*\~

'Please...' Rachel's eyes lit up as soon as her eyes caught a glimpse of memorable blonde hair. The car in front of her was respectable to say the least, with a shining immaculate surface, but the one thing throwing off the image was the girl in the backseat. Her shoulder-length blonde hair was scruffy and tangled as it hung loose down the back of her neck and it appeared that she was wearing a grey hoodie.

Rachel felt an unfamiliar pang in her heart as the girl turned around to reveal her face. 'Oh my god.' she breathed out through her teeth 'Quinn.' It was Quinn, Rachel knew for sure, not only by her looks, but she sensed it. She just knew. As Quinn turned around slightly, Rachel caught a glimpse of purple, red and several other colors replacing the blonde's normally fair skin. The bruises looked fresh and raw, with tear tracks staining the sides of her face.

Rachel found herself muttering 'Follow that car!'

~/*\~

Quinn's chest felt heavy as her breathing became rapid. Her whole body just felt numb, yet tingly apart from the feel of her racing heart booming from her finger tips to her toes. She had to get out. Her arms pointlessly hit against the surrounding surfaces whilst her legs kicked violently. She had to get out. She felt the little air leave her lungs as she uncontrollably shouted. There was no escape...

The sound of the engine which Quinn's ears were accustomed to by now stopped only several minutes after her body went into overdrive. The girl quietened as she heard the sound of light feet approaching. A noise like that of a car door replaced that of walking. Quinn's eyes quickly adjusted to the daylight as she looked around where she was laid, finding her mother still holding on to the vehicle's trunk opening above her.

'Mom.' Quinn forced out of her dry throat as she gently sat up, nursing her head.

~/*\~

Rachel had been shouting at herself for the past ten minutes. After being caught behind a red light, the brunette had lost the grayish-silver car she was following. Stuck with no clue, Rachel had been driving up and down a bunch of unfamiliar roads until she saw the sign to a gas station. _What have I got to lose?' _she half-stated mentally as she turned in to only find three cars; a red one, an old looking blue one and the gleaming car in the corner slightly hidden by trees. Now; only to find Quinn.

~/*\~

'Quinny.' Judy smiled at her daughter, taking her left hand in both of hers. The slightly tearful woman crouched down so that she was at the same level as her daughter, 'I am so sorry.'

'It's okay,' Quinn smiled back at her mother on the outside, but she hated the lies spewing from her mouth, 'please don't cry.' The younger blonde leant forward to hug her slightly crying mother who just pushed her away.

'No' she simply stated as she stood up, pulling her mobile out of her pocket. 'Someone rang asking to speak to you- some Rachel Berry kid. That is one of your old friends from glee club isn't it?' Quinn hated the way her mother added the word _'old'_ into her sentence.

'I'll go and ring her.' Quinn had to quickly overcome her dizziness as she stood up, her breaths were still heavy and short, but she had calmed down quite quickly from a few minutes ago. Judy passed her her phone, but before giving it to Quinn she spoke,

'Be quick, he'll be back soon.' Quinn took the phone out of her mother's hands before walking off to somewhere she could be alone, finding Rachel's number whilst she walked. No answer. Quinn was now sat on the curb of the parking lot behind another car so she was out of sight. She didn't know how she knew it, but right now she didn't care; the girl quickly entered Rachel's home phone number. She heard the ringing for only a second before one of the Berry men answered. However, Rachel's dad was only met with silence (and so hung up immediately, figuring that it was some stupid prank call) as Quinn dropped the phone to the ground, smashing the screen.

'Quinn!' Rachel? No. She wasn't there. _She's just a figment of my imagination. _Yet another lie Quinn tried so desperately to believe. 'What happened? Are you okay?' Quinn tried to stand up quickly, feeling some strange want to actually hug Rachel. However, the sudden movement made the pain she was already hiding increase, making her slightly cry out. It also didn't help she was still light headed after being in that horribly small and dark trunk earlier. 'Hey, hey, hey,' Rachel rushed to the girl's side as soon as she saw her start to fall back down again. 'Take it easy.' She helped ease Quinn back down to the ground, but this time on to the soft grass a few steps back. The smaller girl sat down carefully next to Quinn who was just staring straight ahead, obviously deep in thought. Rachel gently brushed Quinn's slightly matted hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. The two sat in silence until Quinn spoke softly, still in a trance-like state,

'Thank-you... for- for caring about me.' Both of them were lost for words, Rachel was full of questions, needing answers, but she was too afraid of scaring Quinn away. Quinn, on the other hand, actually couldn't think of what to say what with all of the different emotions that were washing over her.

'That looks painful.' Rachel had been studying Quinn's delicate features for a while, but Quinn felt natural just to let her. She was so tired of having to constantly push people away.

'What?' Quinn kept her head forwards, but she moved her eyes to look at Rachel.

'That bruise.' Rachel's voice was drowned in concern as her eyebrows knitted together.

'Oh... I- it looks worse than it is.' Quinn shook her head as she spoke- she had forgotten that she was make-up less. She tugged at her sleeves as she began to slowly creep back in to her shell.

'How did it happen?' Rachel came closer to Quinn as she studied the bruise or collection of bruises- she couldn't really tell. She also noticed her swollen lip, but chose to ignore it for the time being.

'It's nothing, I just... urm, yeah, it's a long story.' All of her planned cover stories escaped her mind.

'Quinn, if I tell you something, will you promise not to get mad at me?'

'I could never be mad with you.' Quinn answered truthfully as she turned slightly, allowing her to look Rachel directly in the eyes.

'Santana and I,' Rachel tried to avoid Quinn's welcoming eyes as she worried about how she would react, 'well, we've been to your house.' Quinn closed her eyes as she drew in a deep breath, trying to prepare herself for what was to come. 'And, Santana, she said she found pregnancy tests in the trash. Quinn... are you pregnant?' Rachel reached her hands across which she placed on Quinn's arms, trying to be comforting by gently rubbing her thumbs in circles. What she didn't know was that Quinn was freaking out inside due to the motion. The cuts on her arms stung as she swore they started bleeding again. The blonde looked up to the sky with her eyes trying to block the tears.

'I'm not.' The lies were coming easy again now. 'They were from sophomore year; I haven't really used my own bathroom since then, which is why the mirror is on the floor, because I was hating the changes to my body and lost my temper. That is all... I promise.' Quinn had to swallow down the lump in her throat- she hated herself for lying to Rachel's face like this.

'What about the rest of your house?' Quinn looked around as if she was looking for the answer. Due to this, Rachel shifted so that she was now directly ahead of Quinn, placing her hands on Quinn's legs to try and comfort the shaking girl at the same time as getting her attention. The warm shivers spreading around her body thanks to tanned hands on her thighs meant that Quinn found it even harder to think. 'What happened? There was blood over the walls and floor and there was smashed glass and...' Rachel trailed off as she found her words getting lost somewhere between her brain and mouth.

'There was...' Quinn let a solitary tear trickle down her cheek as she hoped to God that Rachel would buy her story, 'These, people... they came to my house last night, whilst my parents weren't in and they... they thought it would be fun to rough me up a bit.' Rachel watched as more water droplets escaped from Quinn's tired eyes. 'That was when you found me last night and why I was covered in bruises. Why I didn't want to go home.' Rachel kept searching Quinn's wondering orbs as she tried to figure out what had really happened, but eventually she figures she would play along for now.

'They... they didn't hurt you in any other way did they?' Quinn didn't need to voice her confusion as her face said it all, 'They didn't... rape you did they?'

'No.' Quinn looked straight into Rachel's soft chocolate eyes as she spoke- she only could because it wasn't a lie; these imaginary people didn't rape her.

'QUINN!' Quinn's head shot up as soon as she heard that familiar male voice. She immediately gripped Rachel's hands that were still slightly holding her thighs as she listened intently. 'LUCY QUINN FABRAY!' she heard him bellow again. She couldn't let him find Rachel. Quinn stood up, pulling Rachel up with her, but she kept her upper body low motioning for Rachel to do the same so that they would stay hidden.

'Follow me' Quinn whispered, dragging Rachel by her hand into the maze of trees, only turning back around once she was satisfied that they were out of sight.

'What was that all about?' Rachel asked both concerned and confused. Quinn just shifted awkwardly looking away until Rachel spoke again, 'Your father, he hasn't done this to you has he?'

'No!' _How could Rachel know? _Quinn lowered her voice as she realised she practically shouted the last part, 'My parents love me... and I love them. They would never do anything to hurt me.' Quinn's voice quivered slightly as she used her sleeve to dry her eyes which were still slightly damp. Once she re-opened her eyes she found the girl before her slightly sobbing. 'What's the matter? Don't cry, please.' Quinn placed a hand gently on Rachel's upper back.

'I'm sorry, I just... you... I don't know what to do... sorry... you're hurt and I just... want to help... don't know how...' was all that Quinn could make out through Rachel's cries.

'Shhhhh... It's okay... I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me, I promise.' Quinn wrapped an arm around the weeping girl, ignoring the pain as she led Rachel over to a large tree. Both girls simultaneously sat down as Rachel buried her head in Quinn's jumper, hating the fact that she was crying to the girl she was so concerned about. 'Shhhh...' Quinn repeated once more as she leant down to place a kiss on the other's head. 'It's okay Rachel...'

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading this and for not giving up on me after not updating for what feels like ever! Please can you let me know what you thought and if you want me to continue? (Also, sorry for any mistakes/ continuity errors- I have been writing this at some ridiculous hour of the morning so I have been getting 3 hour nights the past week) Thank-you again and pretty please review? Thanks :) Xx**


	14. Screams

**Note: Thank-you all so much for your response to the last chapter and even just for reading it! So as always, I couldn't wait to write and I had a little more time recently and so I have written this chapter, however it is about half the length of some of the others sorry :/ also, this is a bit rushed so I apologise if you don't like this chapter- if not, I promise to do my best to make the next chapter better if you want me to continue? Anywhoo, Thank-you again and I hope you like this! :)**

_**I don't own 'Glee'... If I did the pilot would never have been aired as it would have been that rubbish...**_

'I'm sorry for... for everything' Rachel whispered.

Quinn furrowed her brow slightly as she felt her scars sting. She didn't know why but sometimes they would just ache, even some of the older ones. Her mind didn't register that Rachel had spoken. 'Quinn, what's wrong?' Rachel jolted up as she heard the girl above her wince. Little did she know that this movement was why Quinn next cried out slightly. The blonde shut her eyes tight as she tried to slow her breathing, bringing up one of her hands from around Rachel up to her head which she slowly rubbed. 'Quinn, please speak to me, sweetheart, please tell me what is wrong.' Rachel didn't know where the 'sweetheart' part had come from, but the appearance of the girl before her was enough for the simple answer at least. The brunette sat up on her knees as she studied the girl who just let the arm previously around Rachel drop to the floor as she tried to ignore the pain. 'Quinn, please, you're scari-' Rachel felt Quinn's icy fingers clamp uncharacteristically around her mouth. Quinn pulled Rachel in one movement back up next to her, flat against the large tree where they would be out of sight to any one on the other side. Rachel brought her hand up to Quinn's which was still on her mouth. She gripped the other girl's wrist in an attempt to move her hand away, but she stopped as soon as she realised it was still swollen. Rachel settled for placing her warm hand on top of Quinn's lightly, expressing her confusion through her face. Quinn's eyes were now wide and alert as tears dripped down her face and tumbled from the bottom of her jaw whilst she concentrated hard at the same time.

'You can't speak, just listen.' Quinn whispered to the shaking Rachel who to be honest was trembling less than the other girl. The blonde slowly removed her hand from Rachel's mouth, but the brunette kept her hand on top of the blonde's as she held it softly.

'What for?' Rachel barely even mouthed.

'Shhh-' Quinn fell silent as soon as she heard another footstep. _Thud_. That was how she would describe the sound despite the crunching of the fallen fall leafs.

'LUCY Q FABRAY! GET YOUR DUMBASS FACE OUT HERE WHERE I CAN SEE IT... NOW!' His harsh voice echoed faintly through the somewhat eerie forest. Quinn grabbed Rachel's other hand as she took it in hers. Facing the smaller girl she choked

'I can't let him get you.' She stated staring deep into chocolate colored eyes. Her own were desperate and defeated.

'I can't let him _hurt_ you.' Rachel said slightly louder staring back with the same desperation.

'You don't know what is going on, so please don't assume.' Quinn, not wanting her words to sound as harsh as they sounded, released Rachel's hand and raised her own to gently stroke Rachel's cheek, putting some of the girl's now messy hair behind her ear. She admired the girl before her; so innocent, so young. She yearned to be like that once more. And just to think, who would have thought that the girl who may have worked out her darkest secret would be one Rachel Berry.

More footsteps, this time they were picking up their pace as they drew closer. Quinn looked up to the sky, despite the fact that she wasn't sure she wanted to believe in god anymore- it was just becoming a nervous habit. Both teenagers listened carefully for a little longer until they heard more thuds. Quinn pulled Rachel flat against the rough bark once more as she used her now free hand to fiddle with her cross.

'I won't let him hurt you, I promise.' Rachel muttered to Quinn who she could sense was a lot more scared than she would admit to. Rachel couldn't know, she couldn't. _No-one _could. Quinn found it easier to ignore the comment, pretend she never heard it, but she felt her heart leap. Rachel cared.

'Girls.' Russell nodded his head to the pair as he unclenched his fists and attempted to loosen his shoulders. He smiled slightly as he tried walking calmly towards them, but his fake demeanour wasn't fooling anyone. Rachel watched the fire grow in his eyes as he began stalking towards them- to Quinn.

Rachel shifted her position to put herself directly in the man's path and by doing so shielded Quinn's body. 'Mr. Fabray, I believe we- err, we haven't had the pleasure of meeting each other ye-'

'Rachel... ' Rachel snapped her head around to Quinn who was shaking her own at Rachel as she began to stand.

'Why, if it isn't Miss. Rachel Berry, daughter of the two Berry fags.'

'Daddy, please just leave it.' Quinn begged. Rachel began to stand up as she realised that Quinn was now standing in front of her, completely vulnerable. 'Goodbye Rachel.' Quinn said, just turning her head slightly towards Rachel. Her voice cracked as she said Rachel's name and her eyes did more apologising and pleading than she could in words.

Russell and Quinn began to walk away, leaving a stunned Rachel staring at the pair, her brain working overdrive. Rachel let her legs lead her quickly to the Fabrays as her voice carried her thoughts.

~/*\~

'Just tell me what is going on.' Mercedes demanded. She was now sat in Santana's kitchen with the Latina, from whom she was begging for answers.

'I've already told you,' Santana replied, 'I have no clue and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you. I couldn't because I know this is bad.'

'Can you at least tell me where Rachel is going?'

'Your guess is as good as mine- Rachel refused to say.'

'Okay, but this is Rachel we are talking about here; she's... the way she is, wanting to be a good person and all, but... she can get into trouble so easily. She isn't safe out there on her own.'

'So what do you suggest we do?' Santana followed the pacing Mercedes with her eyes as she sighed.

Mercedes came to a halt as a smile slightly possessed her face 'I say it is time we do a little snooping ourselves'.

Santana's eyes grew wide, if they went searching than Mercedes would be aware of Santana's suspicions too 'No!'. However, in her mind she already had this all worked out.

~/*\~

'Wait a minute, you can't just go. Sir, what you are doing is wrong! How could you do this to your own daughter?' Russell turned as anger threatened to burst him at the seams. He grabbed the top of Quinn's arm as Rachel continued 'I will not stand for it and why do you even do it? Why can't you just tak-'

'YOU!' Russell effortlessly pushed Rachel to silence her, sending her straight down on to the muddy ground.

'No!' Quinn cried as she tried to get to Rachel's side, but her father just dragged her a little further away from Rachel, shouting all the time.

'You told her! You fucking told her! How many other people have you told, eh? That Lopez kid, this dyke, who else, hey? Answer me.' He stopped moving suddenly as he awaited his daughter's answer.

'I already told you; I never said a word to Santana and I didn't send those stupid texts. As for _Rachel_, I never said a word, this was because you can't keep your damn anger under control' Quinn paused momentarily as she received a slap to the side of her face 'if you hadn't reacted the way you did, she would never have known. She put two and two together- she's not dumb you know.' The blonde did the best she could to brace herself for her father's reaction, yet the worse thing was the fact that Rachel would have to see this- whatever was going to happen.

'I have had it with you. You're supposed to be my daughter and do as I say when I say. You got it? Well you are the one who wants to be a good little daddy's girl, aren't you?' He pushed her back by the shoulders lightly, but then he paused until Quinn re-opened her eyes. That was when he went mad on her. He forced Quinn down to the floor with her laying flat on her back in no time. Russell clasped her wrists with his hands. Still holding on to her wrists, he slammed his fits into her head and chest several times before throwing her wrists violently to her sides, noticing that the blood which now covered the underside of the arms on Quinn's jumper was also over his hands. 'Some kind of trick you're trying to play?' He slammed down his forearm into her throat causing strangled coughs from the girl. Quinn felt his knee plunge into her upper abdomen like she felt herself screaming and crying. She could feel that Rachel was crying too, possibly even screaming. She couldn't hear it though- noises like images were just a blur of different things smudged together. There was one noise though that all three of them could make out- a very distinct cracking.

Rachel watched in horror as she screamed out to the girl from her position on the floor.

'Quinn! Quinn... please.' She had another rush of energy- adrenaline? She pealed herself off of the floor as she began to notice Russell growing tired. 'Leave her alone.' Rachel stood even less than a few feet away.

'Excuse me?' Russell was back to practically straddling Quinn again as he turned to face Rachel.

'You heard me... leave her alone.' Rachel's odd confidence came out as a stuttering mess as she realised what she was getting herself into. Rachel felt his hands grip at her ankles as he tried to pull her down too.

'No... leave_ her_... alone' Quinn managed to force out through her burning throat. 'You... you can hurt me... do what you like... but... don't drag Rachel into this... too. Don't hurt... her.' Quinn let out a frustrated sigh at the sheer effort of making any noise exit her that wasn't a result of pain. Russell looked between the two girls for a moment before turning towards Rachel.

'Keep your mouth shut and you will also never see my daughter _ever_ again.' He turned his attention back to Quinn, picking up where he left off.

'Run... Rachel... please... get away... run...' Quinn pleaded through her strangled breaths.

Rachel did just that. She ran for her life, but more importantly; she ran for Quinn's life. Just because she was running away from this didn't mean that she was going to run away from the broken girl. No, she could never do that. Despite her escape, Rachel could not free her mind of the echoing of Quinn's cries whilst she was still able to hear the haunting screams. Screams.

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed it! :) Sorry for any mistakes etc and yeah, thank-you again. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter/this story so far and if you want me to continue, pretty pretty please? If you do want me to continue, I will do my best to update as soon as possible, but I have loads of homework and I am performing in the West End (:D England's Broadway :D) next weekend and so I don't know when an update will be- but I have written a couple of future Faberry scenes if you want me to continue? Thank-you again :) Xx**


	15. Not Without Me

**Note: Thank-you so much for all of your alerts, favorites and reviews so far- I love them so :D Okay, so first up, I'm so, so, SO sorry that I haven't updated in absolutely ages and I know that I have been saying that for the past few chapters. I haven't had much time to write as I am in a local(ish) show at the moment that we have been in rehearsals for and are currently part way through the four week long run and when I am not at the theatre, I've been in rehearsals for another show so I've been so busy! Anyway, sorry for that long explanation, also I'm sorry for the length of this chapter- it is about half of the previous ones, but, if you want me to continue, I'm hoping to update before Friday :). I hope you like this chapter!**

_**Yeah, so... I don't own 'Glee'. Moving on...**_

Rachel felt her heart pounding as loud as a drum as she watched Russell pass her- she was completely invisible to him amongst the mess of trees and leaves. She looked back, hoping to see Quinn, but her hiding spot was too far away from where the blonde girl lay. As soon as Mr. Fabray was out of sight, Rachel made a run for it back to where she had left the two Fabrays several minutes ago.

'Oh my gosh! Quinn! Are you alright?' She felt stupid asking the latter question to the girl who was lying in a bloodied heap on the ground before her.

'I'm fine, just help me up, please.' Rachel reached over, putting her hands under the blonde's arms, figuring that this skin wouldn't be as bruised. As Quinn slowly struggled to try and get to her feet, she stopped suddenly, only half way up. 'Fuck' she stuttered as her breath caught in her throat and her eyes once again became damp. Greeny hazel eyes stayed focussed on one patch of leaves whilst her mouth contorted, looking as though she was silently screaming.

'Quinn! What is it! What's wrong?'

'Nothing. I'm fine, just please take me back to the parking lot.' Quinn swallowed as she drew her eyes back up to Rachel, trying to gain some composure.

'You most certainly are not fine and under no circumstances am I going to let you back with that beast you call a father.

'He is not my dad.' Quinn said almost carelessly and light heartedly. 'I lost him to this demon thirteen years ago when I began to become the problem child.' Quinn's eyes flickered through a number of different emotions before settling on a mixture of them all. She desperately scrambled to get up, but once again she was stopped by pain and a serious lack of oxygen.

'Quinn! Come here, you need to lie down and stay here, still. I need to call 911.'

'No!' Quinn shot up, regretting her body's reaction straight away.

'I'm not going to let him do this to you,... not anymore. Here,' Rachel gently eased Quinn back into a laying position 'you need to keep still. You could have broken something or goodness knows what. Rachel rested Quinn's head down on to her lap, stroking stray pieces of blonde hair out of the other's face. Quinn looked up into Rachel's eyes communicating more in that moment than any being could through words their entire lifetime.

'Please don't call the... the-er... 911. Quinn panted.'

'Why? And anyway, I need to, have to. I can't let him keep doing this to you.' Despite her own words, Rachel hadn't even planned on how she was going to get access to a phone.

'He only wants what is best for me.' Quinn disconnected their visual conversation with one another as guilt and shame clouded her mind.

'What!' Rachel's eyebrows raised as her eyes simultaneously snapped to Quinn's.

'I deserve it. Every single... It's my fault and I must be punished if I disappoint him.' Quinn spoke the last sentence as though she couldn't believe the words were coming from her own lips.

'No... no. No, Quinn, please don't say that.' Quinn just turned her head away from Rachel, but she found herself missing her comforting chocolate eyes. 'Wh... When did this all start?' Rachel hesitated.

'I don't want to talk about it... Besides, he doesn't do it often.' Quinn kept her face turned as she was afraid of Rachel seeing through the lies.

'Quinn.' The brunette warned. 'Please talk with me.' Rachel gently turned Quinn's head back to face her whilst she subconsciously brushed her fingers through the other's blonde hair, removing some of the knots. 'You mentioned something about being the problem child?' Rachel tried to recall what Quinn had said.

'ADD. I had medication and everything keeping it under control and during that and afterwards... that was when I started to be bullied. I would come home each day crying and I refused to do anything other than sit around. That was when they started drinking, my... _him_ more than my mom- the alcohol would drown me out of their lives. I didn't go home in tears after a while, I would just lock myself away in my room and read millions of stories. I used to get lost in those books; everything always turned out perfect and good things always came to the good people.' Quinn's eyes were distant as her mind travelled back to her child hood. 'I waited for years, each day I was waiting for that perfect life to come and take me away. But it never did... I patiently waited, constantly saying to myself that the day would be tomorrow and everything would turn out fine. But, as the seasons went on, I began to lose hope. The little voice overshadowed the rest of me which had always been telling me 'maybe they are right, you are a worthless piece of shit.'. I didn't stop reading though, as I got older what I read changed, but it still gave me false hope. I remember one time, I was reading one of those typical fairy-tale like books and my sister, Frannie, broke into my room. She came storming in saying that mom and dad were cross with her for stealing our mom's book, but she didn't. She immediately presumed that I had, and even more so when she saw the book in my hands. 'You took it!' she spat at me, keeping her voice down so that only I could hear. I repeatedly told her that I didn't and that I got it from the library, but she wouldn't listen. She said that I was a dumbass and that I didn't even know what a library was and then she grabbed the neck of my dress and pulled me down the stairs to where our parents were, with the book in her hand. She was always the perfect child who got everything after that as I was pushed further into the background. My parents took away my books and told me that naughty girls deserve only naughty things.'

'They've been doing this to you since then?' Rachel's mind was trying to piece together Quinn's life at the speed of light.

'No!' Quinn exclaimed sitting up a little. However, when she looked at the brunette her features softened. 'When my sister left for college, that was when we moved and I became Quinn instead of that disgusting 'Lucy Caboosey' girl. They missed Frannie loads and tried to replace her with me, making me the golden child. I was never able to meet their expectations of me though- I wasn't Frannie. They pretended not to care that much back then; they would force me into cheerleading, which I did love, but they also pushed me to the top of the social heap. They manipulated little innocent Lucy into the back-stabbing two-faced bitch that I am.'

'Quinn...' Rachel tried to contradict what the blonde was stating.

'You don't need to lie. Don't pretend that for one minute you believe that I am not.'

'Quinn, I don't believe, I _know_ you're not.' Rachel looked down into tired hazel eyes. Quinn raised an eyebrow as she challenged the brunette.

'You really don't think that if some way I managed to get back to Lima and McKinley that I will just ignore you down the halls? Or worse, you'd no longer be Rachel, you would be Berry, or dwarf or manhands... or whatever? And you would hate being within 100 foot of me. That is what _would _happen, I know.' Rachel appeared angry throughout all of Quinn's questions, however not at the fact of what Quinn said would happen, it was true, it would hurt her, but she was more hurt by the fact that Quinn thought that little of herself.

'It doesn't have to.' Quinn sighed in defeat at Rachel's words- this was another battle she was fed up of fighting.

After a moment of silence, Quinn interjected 'I need to go.'

'Wh-' Rachel's brow furrowed at the immediate confusion.

'He wanted me back like 10 minutes ago.' Quinn slightly laughed at the thought of how long these two enemies had been sat like this. She slowly got to her feet wincing every now and then.

'Please don't go... I swear I'll call the cops.' Rachel stood to join Quinn.

'You wouldn't, believe it or not, I know you better than you think.' Rachel jokingly pulled a dramatic shocked face, causing a smile to form on Quinn's lips. The smile dropped as soon as it appeared. The Fabray wrapped her arms around the shorter girl. 'Goodbye Rachel... Thank-you for everything. I guess I'll see you again someday when you are rich and famous starring on Broadway.' Quinn buried her face deeper into Rachel's hair in an attempt to hide her tears.

'Hey,' Rachel pushed Quinn backwards slightly so that she could look into her eyes, 'you're not going anywhere, I promise... not without me.' The blonde nodded slightly as she wiped her tears; she didn't want Rachel getting involved, but equally she didn't want to block her out. Rachel held onto Quinn's hand as they made their way slowly back to the cars in silence.

'I'm scared.' Quinn admitted, barely above a whisper.

'You're bigger and better than him, always remember that okay? Don't let anyone get you down.' Rachel squeezed Quinn's hand. As soon as Russell appeared from the shop, Rachel stated 'Let's go.'

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! I really hoped you liked this chapter? As always, please review and let me know what you thought and if you want me to continue or not? As I said previously, if you do want me to continue, I will hopefully have the next chapter up by Friday. Also, I am sorry for any mistakes and such- most of this was written around 2am several mornings as I really wanted to get a new chapter up, but didn't have time... Thank-you again, and I hope you are having a good week! ****Au revoir****! Xx**


	16. That Crappy Town

**Note: First of all, I would like to thank all if you as always for your alerts, favorites and reviews- they make my day! Secondly, I hope you all had a great Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year and anything else that you may be celebrating this time of the year! Damn! I broke my promise :( I am truly sorry for doing so, but I guess I didn't specify which Friday? This took a lot longer to write than I expected, and I am still not happy with it- last night I was up writing this for hours and didn't end up going to sleep until twenty to ten this morning! Woops... Anyway, I hope you like this chapter! :)**

**Yes! Over 100 reviews and alerts :D When I started writing this I didn't expect many, if any, to like this, but here we are. So basically I would like to thank: olacindy, feintidea, erw-fan, icesk8er, Bleach-Glee-Lover, Trixxy, RVFlorida, sdmwd1115, karlymorrig, umbrellaleg, gleegirl116, Alybear, MsChloeMa, DrWhoFan71, smartblonde317, CarmellaD'Winter, HPVDGLEE, .13.45, Minerva McBadass, AWickedDistraction, Filmaddict, MsCroft, quinnfabrayxxx, squirtermonkey, jupiter01, m, riverkirby, claireleven, undertheopensky, lostsunsets, fa1th5by5, gogolax, FacingFuture, Bella, Gleek1990, snakeyninja, Kay, Bordersmgr, Charlotte and Alex! ~ Thank-you to you all for your reviews and an especially big thank-you to those who have reviewed on pretty much every chapter. Also thank-you (for about the 100****th**** time :L) to all of you for reading- I love you all! (p.s. sorry if I missed any names out or miss spelt them :/)**

_**As you know, I do not own 'Glee'...**_

'_Let's go.'_

'Quinn? Quinn!' Rachel watched the blonde who appeared to be frozen in time. The girl's eyes flickered as she returned to reality. Quinn watched as her father raced out of no where towards her.

'Lucy. Get in the car, now. We're leaving.' Russell spat as he looked Rachel up and down, disgust covering his face.

'No.' Quinn stuttered as she took a sudden interest in the ground.

'What did you just say?' It was more of a warning rather than a question. Russell leapt forwards and grabbed a fistful of the neck of Quinn's bloodied hoodie. The trembling girl took a sharp intake of breath, only to let it out in the form of whimpers seconds later due to the pain burning in her chest. Rachel's worried eyes met Quinn's as she offered a supportive smile and a light squeeze to the pale hand she was still holding.

'I...-I said... No... I'm not moving out of Lima. I want to stay there.' Russell's facial features screwed up tight together as anger bubbled inside of him.

'Or what?' Russell turned to Rachel as he started to chuckle demonically to himself bitterly, 'You're going to try to infect me with your gay like you have done to _her_?

Russell shoved his daughter backwards as he said the word '_her_'. He looked down at their intertwined fingers, 'You fucking little lesbos!'

Quinn opened her mouth to reject the statement, but nothing came out, she just gripped Rachel's hand harder and pulled her slightly closer. Rachel stepped towards Russell,

'Or I'll call the cops.' Rachel held herself strong as she spoke, not letting her height disadvantage affect her.

'Do you really think that they will believe you?' Mr. Fabray chuckled wickedly aloud. 'Whose side would they take, eh? Some weird little gay dwarf or the trusted Mr. Fabray; well-known and well-loved throughout Lima? And anyway, what would you say to them? You have nothing against me!'

'Really? Well personally I believe that child abuse would not go down so well!' Quinn flinched as Rachel confidently spoke the words '_child abuse_'- she had always tried to not think about it before but now she was here, being defended against such a thing by the girl she constantly tormented on and off for three years. Russell remained silent which Rachel immediately took as an invite to talk. Stepping forwards once more, Rachel cleared her throat 'I have a proposition for you Mr. Fabray...' both Quinn and Russell arched an eyebrow 'you stop beating your daughter and then I will not report you.' Rachel placed her free hand on her hip as she challenged the man in front of her who released an angry sigh. 'That is not all; you are coming back to Lima and Quinn is coming back to McKinley and glee club and whatever else she wants to do for herself.' Quinn started to feel odd inside, sort of gooey, this was the first time anybody had been so protective over her and stuck up for her so much.

We have to go back to that crappy town either way; we lost the frigging house in Pellston.' Russell tried to sound less pathetic as he had no choice but to do as the small brunette had demanded, whilst Quinn just stood awkwardly on the side even though she was in the centre of all of this arguing and hate. 'Get in the car' he eyed Quinn up and down in disgust of her bloody and scruffy appearance.

'I want to go with Rachel.' the dryness of Quinn's throat was made obvious by the hoarse sound produced.

'Don't you think that you can get around me that easily little madam.' Quinn's father's attempts at whispering failed as the two teens were pretty sure that it was audible even for people in the little shop.

'Are you going to b-'

'I will be fine Rachel.' Quinn closed her eyes in what looked like frustration as she pushed the words out of her mouth. Quinn wrapped her arms around Rachel's upper back as she lightly hugged the brunette, who returned the meaningful embrace. Right now, Quinn didn't care if her dad thought that her and Rachel were 'fucking lesbos'. Part of that may have been , though, because she wanted to deny it, but she couldn't, not to him, and besides, it would only enrage him more if she did.

'I'll meet you back at your house then if you are sure you will be alright?' Quinn pulled away from Rachel as she turned and met her father's murderous eyes. Turning her head slowly back to Rachel, the tired blonde nodded slowly in reply to Rachel's earlier question. Rachel reached her arm out and placed her hand on Quinn's shoulder. The girl who received the soft touch was oddly missing the contact with Rachel that she had previously- it was as though there was emptiness around her that added to the emptiness inside now that Rachel wasn't close by. However, the warm, tanned hand placed delicately on her shoulder was filling some of that void.

'Get your ass in the car!' He instructed once more whilst he attempted to subtly pull Quinn away. Despite Quinn being thrown back into the car, the pair never lost their eye-contact. Rachel watched as Russell got in the vehicle and she watched as the car sped away.

The ride home was long and torturous for both of the girls. Quinn was sat in the back seat, with her parents talking about holiday plans in front of her. Quinn didn't speak a word with only the sound of her irregular breaths and scarred arms to keep her company. The blond gently stroked the scabs after tracing each mark on her forearms, she began to scratch, causing new blood to leak out of her ghostly skin. She felt the pain seething through the bleeding limbs, however it wasn't enough- it helped a little, but not enough. It never did. Her mind travelled to her thoughts as part of her wanted to send a blade through her chest to her numb heart. No, she couldn't- she knew how much it would hurt Rachel. She couldn't be selfish, putting Rachel through that. She dug her nails in once more, tearing open her fragile skin creating more wounds which Quinn felt like she deserved. The pain was sort of a distraction- thinking about the cuts and the pain drowns out her thoughts and the pain inside of her. However soon, like always, she was brought back to reality and the harsh feeling of her life which she had learned to live only part alive. Trembling fingers traced through the blood, staining her skin. She hid under the security of the blanket her mom had put over her so that no one could see the disgrace that was their so called daughter.

'Quinny, sweetie,' Quinn pulled down the sleeves of her thick hoodie at the sound of her mother's patronising voice. 'Could you pass me a pen? There is one in the front section of my bag. Quinn silently found the pen and passed it to her mom. The meaningless smile which Judy shot Quinn after saying thank- you, just made Quinn feel as though she fell deeper into the hole she was constantly tumbling down. She found a whole stationary set in the cream- coloured bag. One item in particular caught the attention of her craving fingers. The blonde hid the sharpener up her sleeve as she returned to the faint light under the grey blanket covering her. Her fingers fiddled with the screw holding the sharp implement together.

Rachel couldn't stop worrying about Quinn as her mind still was trying to process all of this. She had remembered the first day she had had the 'pleasure' of meeting Quinn Fabray. However, after a while of her constant tormenting, she told her fathers about this blonde who had it all. Her fathers told her to stay away from the Fabrays and that Mr. Fabray was a bad man, yet she had never imagined what was going on. To be honest, she had never really thought about how Quinn would be affected- she used to always seem happy and besides, her father had moved out hadn't he?

Quinn's mouth formed a smile as she succeeded in her aim. The blade fell effortlessly apart from the plastic and screw into her hand. It was like second nature to her now- her right hand seemed to automatically bring the small shining object to her wrist on her forearm. Pressing it down gentler at first, unsure of what the different blade would feel like. She winced slightly at the new sensation before pressing down firmly, dashing randomly up and down her arm until the slate was filled with bloody pools. She then moved onto her right arm, drawing the crimson lines in a similar routine. She was shaking like she always would be by now, but this time she barely noticed as she was empowered to continue, longing for the time when the pain would become so great that it would no longer exist. She lifted her jumper and white vest top up gently to reveal her bruise covered stomach. She stared at the marks for what could have been forever. She hadn't looked in the mirror since she had smashed it and she hadn't been able to bare a look at her skin. She had to draw her eyes away from the welts and bruises, both new and old. Her attention was pulled back to the blade which had blood dripping off of the tip. The anger at what he rather had d e to her was brought to the surface as she began to decorate her stomach with slashes as tears welled. Sobs tore through her weakening body as she dropped the instrument she had a new found love for to her lap, not caring about the fabric being died red on the thigh of her trousers.

Judy reached forward as she turned up the volume of the radio to drown out the tears of her little girl to the whole world.

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! I hope you like? Sorry for any mistakes etc... I wrote this on my iPod and so the auto-correct came up with some kinda amusing words (the word 'kiwi' made several appearances :L) Please let me know what you thought and if you want me to continue or not? If so, I can't make any promises about when the next chapter will be up sorry as I have to go back to school soon (NOO!) and so I'll be juggling that with homework and shows until the run is over- but I will start the next chapter today if you want me to continue :) Thanks again and have a good week! Xx**


	17. When I Get to Five

**Note: Thank-you so much for your alerts, favorites and reviews on last chapter! Right, I don't want to make this note long so: here is the next chapter and I really hope you like it! :)**

_**Me owns: NOTHING! ie- 'Glee' = not mine :( (as you smart people know)**_

'Urghh! You've been trying for over an hour now. Can you just give up already?' Mercedes buried her head in her hands which were resting on the table in front of her whilst she sighed. It was true, Santana had been pacing around the house for quite a while now desperately trying to get through to people who might have a clue, especially Rachel.

'Just let me ring Rachel one more time.' Santana slightly pleaded Mercedes.

'You've said yourself; her phone ran out of charge or whatever so there is no use even trying.' Mercedes smiled sadly at the unusually defeated Santana.

'So what do you say we do now?' Santana sat down at her usual spot at the Lopez's kitchen table.

'I guess we just wait for them to come back- they're both smart girls, they'll be okay.'

'We can't just give up, I'm Santana freaking Lopez, I don't even know the meaning of the word!'

'Look Santana sweetie, we've tried but...' As if on cue, Santana's phone lit up, signalling a new text message. Santana's mouth moved as though she was reading the text aloud as she read it;

Santana honey, I won't be back tonight as I am needed for another meeting tomorrow. There's left overs in the fridge and you know the drill. Also, I saw that blonde girl in a car earlier with her parents and spoke to her father- I mentioned the texts but he said that it was impossible for them to be from Quinn. Are you sure they were from her? See you tomorrow probably X

'Who's it from?' Mercedes asked as she peered over the Latina's shoulder.

'Just Jenny- my step mom.' Santana's speech slowed as she reached the part about a particular blonde. Santana texted Jenny back as she tried to retrieve more information about where Quinn was and when. 'We're finally getting somewhere!' Santana flashed a smile towards Mercedes.

~/*\~

Rachel was afraid of taking her eyes off of the Fabray car, but she eventually tore her eyes away from the vehicle as she found a pay phone. The tiny teen inserted her money into the machine as she dialled Santana's number, thankful for her incredible memory. She listened as the phone rang on the other end, eager to hear the Latina's voice for a change.

'Santana?' Rachel furrowed her eyebrows as a little doubt about her memory popped into her mind.

'Thank god! Berry, where are you?' The two brunettes' conversation went on, but Rachel refused to tell Santana anything that might give away where they were or what has happened. Santana insisted that she came over to see the two of them however Rachel was adamant, as always, that they would be okay.

~/*\~

Quinn blinked as she adjusted to the light- she didn't know how long she had been asleep and she didn't even remember slipping into that state of half dead. Sleeping was something that was foreign to her now. Her head was still swimming from the blood loss- that was one of the few things that got her to sleep causing her to fall into a form of unconsciousness. The world spun around her as she gently peeled back her gray sleeves. Quinn's arms were still bleeding slightly leading her to believe that she couldn't have been asleep for that long. She never used to bleed much; something she was thankful for yet was angry at at the same time. But, the deeper the blade dug and the less food she devoured, the bleeding seemed to become endless. The blond girl gulped as she slowly lifted up her hoodie and white top. The tattered skin felt odd whilst she ran her fingers gently up and down each raw line. Pink was mixed in with crimson as well as the blue, purple and green bruises which caused her face to twist in pain as her numb fingers grazed over them. Carefully, she searched for the sharpener blade that was somewhere on her seat. Quinn let the once soft material slip back over the secrets masking her porcelain skin as she let the blanket fall to the floor. It wasn't as bright out as she had originally thought, in fact it was just the dim streetlights of familiar Lima seeping through the blanket. The light caught the sharp object laying on the floor a little over from her. As she reached out to remove the evidence her breath caught in her throat. Pain shot through her body at just the slight bit of movement. The terrified girl was unable to stop a cry escaping her dry mouth. Her parents didn't even react; she really was invisible to them.

She heard her mother releasing a sigh as they pulled back onto the 'spectacular' Fabray driveway. Just the thought of the nightmares that came to life in that place sickened Quinn. Russell and Judy stepped out of the car and brought in the little belongings that they had taken with them, leaving Quinn behind. After much struggle, Quinn climbed out of the car and over to the front door before her parents had finished unlocking it. As they walked inside, all three of them noticed Quinn's cell phone on the floor, most probably posted through the letter box, yet Russell felt the need to 'accidentally' step on it. The sound of the screen cracking echoed throughout the large mansion-like house.

'Neither of us wants to see your face again tonight, so go up to your room. We don't want to hear another peep out of you...' Russell looked his daughter up and down '... again.' Quinn followed his directions as quick as she could in her current state. As her parents walked back into the kitchen, Quinn silently picked up her phone in order to inspect the damage, keeping an ear out for Russell, afraid of feeling the full extent of her father's wrath.

Quinn opened the door to her room to reveal the practically bare insides- it was still pretty full; various drawers and desks lined the wall and her impressive dresser with numerous imaculate mirrors decorating the top, stood as always by the spread of windows. However the lack of personal photos and her mattress and sofa seemed to create this ghostly feel. She knew where they were- they were in the burnt heap in the garden like several other items of her own. She guessed easily why her mattress had gone- it was crawling with evidence. That was another reason she found it hard to sleep- memories would come streaming back to her as her mind was instantly transported back to the time that _that_ happened and the look on _his_ face. The fragile girl pulled across her bedside table from the other side of the room to push against her shut door, ensuring that no-one could get in.

Quinn cautiously dropped down on to the floor, resting her back against a wall which was adjacent to the windows. Why had her life turned out such a mess? Fairy-tales should be happening right now. Not this shit. Her eyes dampened as she stared at the blank wall in front of her, trying to do anything but listen to her father's joyful chuckles along with her mother's forced ones echoing up the grand staircase from the hall. She wished her mind could be blank, nothing but a white sheet, a fresh canvas that has only bright and happy strokes to be delicately etched on to the blind innocence.

Hazel eyes were drawn to the window from which a singular tapping sound was emitted... And again. This time Quinn saw a small object bouncing off the gleaming glass. Quinn opened her window, thankful that the journey wasn't too far and the activity too strenuous.

'I was worried for a moment that you weren't going to notice.' Quinn's vision was drawn down to a familiar brunette who was currently attempting to climb up the Fabray house.

'Rachel! What are you doing here? You know you can't be seen round here!' Quinn whispered to Rachel who was now face to face with the blond who couldn't help feeling like Juliet as she tried to keep Romeo secret. Wait, Quinn slammed the breaks down on her vision- this was _Rachel_! No way could _she_ be Romeo- she was a girl for a start.

'So are you going to let me in or not? My feet are freezing!' Rachel tried to lighten the situation which caused Quinn to let out a slight giggle. The taller girl offered her hand out to the brunette who slipped inside with ease.

'So how are you?' Rachel looked up to Quinn stood next to her.

'Lets just say you're lucky I wasn't far from the window.' Quinn shifted her gaze to her bare feet as she spoke. She looked back up to Rachel who's mouth had formed a slight mid-gasp expression. 'Don't worry Rach,' Quinn smiled with her mouth but not her eyes, 'It'll be fine in a few days.' Rachel reached her hand out to envelope her surprisingly warm one around Quinn's cold one. Rachel's face lit up as she observed the smile on the other's face reach her soft eyes too.

'You're not in this alone.' Rachel beamed. 'Now let's go- I for one do not want to be fined for illegal parking.' She sighed, 'Come on.'

'Thanks so much, but Rach-'

'Nuh-uh. I always thought you talked too much Fabray!' Rachel teased, 'Oh and er, 'Rach'- I think that is a name I can get used to.' Quinn blushed,

'Watch it or you'll be Berry again!' Even with her sand-paper like throat, Quinn still spoke with incredible elegance.

'So is that the way you wanna play it?' Rachel looked Quinn up and down, unknowingly fluttering her eyelashes. After a moment of silence the two girls burst out laughing.

'Why does it hurt so much to laugh?' As Quinn began to become more comfortable around Rachel again, she started to voice some of her thoughts out loud.

'What?' Rachel questioned as she didn't hear over their fits of giggles.

'Oh, nothing... It doesn't matter.' Quinn looked up to Rachel, knowing that she was waiting for her to elaborate. 'It's just a bit painful when I laugh, but you don't need to worry about it.' The truth was, it did hurt physically, but the mental pain of it was a lot worse- she sort of felt guilty for having fun, as though she didn't deserve to be happy for once, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

'Okay.' Rachel smiled at Quinn. Quinn was expecting questioning or fuss or more questioning, but no. Rachel was learning. 'I thought we were leaving?' Quinn swallowed the large lump in her throat,

'You go first, I'll follow.' The blond gestured towards the open window beside them. Rachel warily left through the gap to then climb back down with stealth. The bloodied girl who was still looking out her window exhaled heavily with her eyes closed- even this caused pain; quite a bit in fact. She let her shaking legs carry her out of the 'safety' of her room and out on to the side of the building- it was then that she heard a loud thud at her door.

'Open this fucking door now or I will find my own way in there!'

'Come on Quinn, you're almost down, just a little further to go.' Rachel shouted up to the girl who was now frozen in place. Quinn cried out as her face shrivelled up- she had climbed this rough wall many times but never in this much pain which right now was excruciating throughout her body, but mainly in her chest and stomach.

'Go on with... out... me. Rachel... please.' Quinn cried out as quietly as she could from her current position. Her attention was then drawn back up to her room, from which her father was still bellowing.

'Lucy Quinn Fabray, let me in now! Don't make me break this frigging door down!' followed by another thud.

'No Quinn, I'm not going with out you.' Rachel stood strong on the ground, beckoning Quinn down.

'You know what happens when I get to five! 1...'

'Please Quinn!' Quinn's eyes shot down to where the feminine voice was coming from. Her vision then returned to her father's voice,

'...2...' This time, the blond looked down to the flower bed below her- at only around six foot off the ground, she didn't have to think twice before jumping; it was either that or let her father get hold of her, or maybe both if she had waited any longer. She landed on the soft flower bed harshly, but she didn't let it affect her. '...3...' The two grabbed each other's hand as they ran to the back gate, faintly hearing '...4...'

~/*\~

Russell bellowed '5!' as he burst his hand through one of the wooden panels with little effort. He reached through, unlocked the door and pushed it open, shoving the furniture which previously blocked the entrance out of the way. 'I am so...' Mr. Fabray trailed off as he found the room empty and the window open. He clenched his fists as he walked over to the window, finding the gate also wide open...

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading this! Sorry for any mistakes etc... Please let me know what you think and if you want me to continue? It you do, when I update is based purely on how much homework and coursework I have to do- the show which I was doing is over now *cries* and so I am now piled with school work I have to catch up on :( Thank-you all again and have a good week! Xx**


	18. Perfect

**Note**:** Thank-you so much for all of your alerts, favorites and reviews on last chapter- you guys are the best! Happy Sunday/ Monday (if you are on my side of the world)! Chapter 18 already? I must say, when I started writing this, I thought anybody who actually did read it would have lost interest by now and so a massive thank-you to all of you that are still here :) I hope you like this chapter!**

**_Is it necessary for me to write this at the start of every chapter? I DO NOT OWN GLEE. There. I said it. Moving on..._**

Quinn sighed as she dropped into the passenger seat, pulling the door closed behind her. Rachel joined Quinn in the car, immediately focussing all of her attention to the blond. Eyeing her up and down, Rachel placed her hand delicately on Quinn's cheek, tracing some of her bruises.

'We need to get you to the hospital.' Rachel's eyes were inspecting the bruise she was following with her fingers. Quinn gently placed her hand on top of Rachel's which was currently on her face in order to pause the patterns that were being softly drawn on to her skin.

'I'm fine... I promise you...' The freezing girl trailed off as she made a promise to Rachel that was nothing more than a lie.

'I am so sorry about this all- if I had never... if I hadn't let you leave when you were round mine, none of this would have happened.'

'This isn't your fault and anyway this is one of those things that no matter what change you make the outcome will always be the same.' Quinn's eyes became distant as she whispered the last few words. 'And anyway, if you hadn't found me that day, I would be lying dead on those steps. I'm glad though- I got you out of this,' Quinn looked Rachel in the eyes once more, 'and that is worth any consequence.' Rachel felt her heart pump a little faster- she didn't know right now what she was feeling, but all of a sudden her face felt warm and not a coherent thought was able to exist in her brain. Whereas, Quinn's brain was working overdrive, thinking of all of these secrets she wanted to share with the girl, all of the lies she wanted to correct yet, similar to Rachel, no words seemed to come out. In a comfortable silence, the two never lost their eye contact as Quinn moved her hand off of Rachel's and the pair shifted slightly closer together. Quinn ignored the pain the best she could as she tucked some of Rachel's somehow perfect hair behind her ear whilst the brunette had just resorted to stroking her thumb back and forth a cross Quinn's cheek. The two leaned even further in as they continued to sit in awe of each other's eyes. Even on the rare occasion when Rachel blinked, she still saw the gorgeous warm hazel and dazzling green eyes staring deep inside of her. The eyes seemed broken, however Rachel focused on that little spark of light that flickered in the green and the soul hidden in the once icy hazel. Quinn wanted to envelope herself in the warmth of the welcoming chocolate orbs which promised to keep her safe from the storm that was raging around her. But this thought scared her. It scared the hell out of her. They leaned in closer, their bodies practically touching and the distance between their faces was so short that they could feel each other's breath bouncing off their faces. Their bodies continued to automatically pull in closer, like a magnet, until Quinn pulled back unpredictably, turning her face slightly from the confused girl at her side. Rachel placed a firm yet gentle hand on Quinn's shoulder,

'What's wrong?' Rachel didn't receive a reply. The dim glow from the surrounding street lights poured in through the car window, illuminating the tears that framed her contours. Quinn didn't know what was happening, but the idea of stopping it wasn't present. However, she couldn't shake the thoughts tearing her down inside then out. Rachel was so good to her, yet she couldn't trust anyone- she had gotten too used to pushing people away that she didn't actually know how not to. 'Let's get this heating on, you look freezing!' Rachel turned back around in order to start the car so that they could finally make their escape. Quinn was cold, but her insides were burning until Rachel took her hand away and let her fall into the black abyss of reality.

'So what would you like for dinner?' Rachel spoke as she started the car.

'Whatever you want. I'm not really hungry thank-you.' Quinn tried her best to stop the tears but they just kept on rolling.

'If you're sure. It is really no trouble and you need to eat to get your strength back up.' The driving brunette peered over at the blond, smiling warmly. It soon dropped however as she heard muffled whimpers coming from the girl at her side. 'Hey, it's okay... It's okay.'

'I am so sorry Rachel. You are being so nice to me after I have made the past three years of your life a living hell. You don't have to do this.' Quinn stared down at her lap, subconsciously soothing her flaming wounds.

'You're right- I don't _have_ to, but I _want_ to. You are such a nice person underneath the thick concrete façade that you keep up. And anyway you never wanted to. You had to.'

'I'm sorry.' Quinn whispered.

'Shhh... No more, you don't need to be sorry or thank me or feel guilty or any of that, okay?' Quinn nodded, recognising the street she was on.

Rachel pulled into her driveway, checking the time before climbing out, Quinn doing the same moments later. The two walked up to the front door.

'Take my cardigan.' Quinn shot Rachel a confused look, 'My dads are known for asking questions.' Rachel elaborated. Quinn nodded in agreement looking down at her now crimson hoodie.

The pair managed to make it inside and up to Rachel's room without either of the Berry men noticing.

'Do you want to put these on?' Rachel passed Quinn a pair of gray jogging bottoms and a plain black vest top. 'The bathroom's just through there.' Rachel pointed to her en suite.

'Thank-you.' the corners of Quinn's mouth turned up slightly as she looked around the room, the clothes in her hand and at probably the most kindest person she had ever met.

'Remember what I said Fabray; don't even mention it.'

Quinn cautiously shut the door, careful not to aggravate her hammering head. Turning away from the mirror she found herself wincing as her cuts had 'healed' attached to her once white top. The wounds were ripped open, raw, as she peeled off the thin material. She slipped her trousers off in the most painless way she could think of, leaving them in a heap on the floor with her top. She bent down to pick the items up, grabbing her side immediately as she felt as though she had been stabbed. She stood back up, breathing through the excruciating pain. Quinn let go of the side of her stomach, finding her hand now covered in her blood.

'What have you done to yourself?' The blonde muttered to herself, 'You're a frigging mess...' She turned around to the mirror, being careful to avoid the mirror with her gaze. Washing her hands, her attention was magnetised to her patchy arms. She hated her eyes as they took a glance at her reflection. Her hair was a dishevelled mess. She wasn't good enough. She was told she was too fat. She wasn't perfect enough. Her skin was too easy to bruise. She wasn't strong enough. Her body was one walking scar. She put a dent in this world. She would never be perfect... Never.

Her eyes took the first opportunity that they could to look at something else other than the disgrace that stood before her. Quinn didn't want to be rude, but she started to search through every cupboard, satisfied once she had found a medical bag. Inside were various forms of tablets, medicines, plasters and several bandages. Within minutes, the longest bandage was wrapped tightly around Quinn's stomach with a strappy black top covering up the cream mesh fabric.

Rachel re-entered her bedroom after changing in the main bathroom across the hall. The petite brunette walked in humming '_when you're smiling, when you're smiling, the whole world smiles with you_', doing her best to keep on a brave face for the taller girl. She looks across to the bathroom door to see if Quinn was finished, but as she caught sight of the blond, a gasp escaped her lips. The lost girl had failed to shut the door properly and her mind was so focused on the mirror that she didn't even notice. Quinn's back was facing Rachel, with the smaller girl's top already covering her longer body. Even with the direction her body was facing, multicolored bruises stood out like black shadows on crisp white ice. Most of all, the ones on her inner thighs were the most prominent; some were just general bruises and some were large hand shapes.

'Quinn...' Rachel breathed, sadness lacing her voice. Quinn turned around immediately at the sound of another's voice, wrapping her arms around her stomach to hide the secrets they held. Hazel irises met watery brown ones as a singular trail of moisture escaped the warm chasms.

'Rachel...' Quinn uttered back with a kind of pleading tone. Immediately, she moved out of the worried gaze and then shut the door. Leaning against it, Quinn found her own eyes dampen. The girl looked down at her own legs, to see how much Rachel would've seen. A whimper echoed through the bathroom as she realised that another one of her secrets was now out on the table. After several minutes, she pushed herself off of the wall whilst mentally preparing herself for the next conversation she knew was to come. She slipped on the bottoms, realising that Rachel just saw her in her panties. The Fabray girl picked up her clothes, hiding a bottle of over the counter sleeping pills (another 'convenient' find in the medical bag) in the pile.

Rachel sat waiting on her bed, thoughts and questions clouding her mind almost to breaking point. Rachel's brain was interrupted by the familiar squeak of her bathroom door; she looked up to find Quinn stood in her clothes, with her cardigan on too. Rachel jumped up off the bed and over to Quinn who was also waking towards her, but she seemed to be more focused on the door.

'Quinn...I...' She glanced up at Rachel to be met with red blood-shot eyes.

'Where will I be sleeping?' Quinn looked back down to the floor. Rachel gulped,

'The guest bedroom is across the hall.' Quinn continued walking out of Rachel's door.

'Wait... Quinn please just listen t-'

'Save it Berry...' Quinn's voice dipped 'Go find someone who wants to hear you pry.' Rachel stroked her hand through her hair as she sighed, dropping down onto her bed. Since when was life so complicated? She laid down over the top of the covers as she returned to her thoughts. She stayed like this until her door creaked open.

'I'm sorry.' Rachel smiled at the speaking blond who stood before her eyes. 'I know you're just trying to help.' Rachel patted the spot next to her on the bed.

'Come sit.' Rachel's soft voice was far from awkward in the silence. Quinn closed the door as she sat down next to the brunette. 'I know I talk too much, that is something I am trying to work on and then maybe more people will listen to me.'

'I always listen to you.' Rachel turned to face Quinn as she listened to the taller girl speak. 'I think your little rants are kinda adorable actually.' Quinn blushed slightly as the words left her lips unconfidently. _Did I really just say that?_ Quinn regretted in her mind.

'Really?' Rachel felt her face warm at the compliment. 'You're the only person who has ever said that.' Rachel tucked some stray strands of hair behind her ear. It was true, no one had ever praised her ability to talk, they always reprimanded her, but all of a sudden that didn't seem to matter as _Quinn Fabray_ said that she_-it_ was adorable. The two fell into a momentary silence, both deep in thought.

'I'm sorry about what I did to you,' Quinn fiddled with her hands in her lap, their rapidness growing as she continued to talk, 'I guess I targeted you as I was jealous.'

'Jealous...? Of me?' Rachel's eyebrows furrowed together in disbelief.

'You have always been so sure of yourself and so confident all of the time. You have always pledged that you are not just trying to but you will actually get out of Lima and become a big star. And... you never cared about what anybody thought,' Quinn's hands were now scratching hr palms as she spoke, a nervous habit of hers she was usually able to hide. Rachel had been watching Quinn's hands from the start of her speech. _'Now that is adorable._' Rachel thought, afraid for a moment that she would say it aloud. She reached across and held onto the blond's hand to stop their nervous activities. 'you never let anybody get you down.' As Quinn finished talking, Rachel took her hand she was holding into her own lap and began to fiddle with her fingers. The sound of Quinn's gulp echoed in the silence, followed by a shaky breath. 'I have always admired you.' Quinn confessed, meeting deep brown orbs. Rachel bit her lip in an attempt to stop a 1000 watt smile spreading across her face- Quinn's eyes were alerted immediately to this action. Something about it made her insides flutter.

'You know; you're pretty amazing yourself- but obviously not as much as me!' Rachel teased, rolling her eyes at herself as they both laughed. They sighed as their laughter died down and they were reminded of the situation they were now both caught in the middle of. 'Do you want me to get you a dressing gown or something? You still seem rather cold.' Quinn's eyes were still focused on Rachel, flicking between those chocolate eyes and red lips, before settling on the latter- this was something that didn't go unnoticed to Rachel. Quinn felt her lips itch causing her to automatically lick her own dry lips.

'Yeah, whatever... Please.' It took all of Rachel's self discipline to tear her eyes away from the blond beauty. She stood up, only letting go of the pale hand that she didn't realise was still in hers, at the last possible moment.

'I'll be back in a moment.' Rachel smiled sweetly as she disappeared off down the hall.

Quinn did the same as what Rachel had done earlier; she laid backwards into the soft sheets, enveloping herself in the surprisingly irresistible smell of Rachel. As soon as the brunette had left the room, Quinn felt a hell of a lot more relaxed- another thing that she questioned as it went through her mind. _Why on earth did she get so nervous around her?_ She was only_ Rachel. Rachel._ Just the name made Quinn's heart beat that little bit faster. _Rachel._ There it was again; the little African drum beating a manic tribal rhythm inside of her_. 'Nooooo!'_ Quinn complained internally- why did her body have to betray her? This was _Rachel Berry_. She could feel her mouth curling into a smile. This was probably the largest amount of times that she had said that girl's name in just one train of thought. _'God...'_ Quinn thought_, '... I'm screwed.'._

**Note: Thanks for reading! Sorry if there are any mistakes. Also sorry if the whole Faberry in the car thing failed, my writing isn't great normally and that sort of thing is even worse, but I have been reading some more of these sorts of scenes to get a better idea- also, if you want me to continue then I promise that I will try my best to make the Faberry-ness better :) Please review and tell me what you thought and if you want me to continue? Right, I have been editing this for an hour now thanks to my iPod not liking this website, so it is time to submit me thinks! Have a good week! Xx**


	19. Play Another

**Note: Heya again! Thank-you so much for your alerts, favorites and reviews! Love you all :) A couple of people mentioned that they wanted to see more of the glee club- they will be here soon if you want me to continue? Sorry this wasn't up sooner, had problems logging in and then came the voting! I mean seriously? We were winning! I have screen shots and posted them on the Achele thread incase we need proof! Anywhoo, whilst we're waiting for the poll to be back on, I hope you like this chapter :)**

_**Yeah, me no own 'Glee'...**_

'Qui-inn' Rachel tapped lightly on the door as she practically sung the other's name. The brunette didn't wait for a reply before bouncing in with a dressing gown, finding Quinn now sat in the same position as before she left.

'Hey.' Quinn smiled. No words were needed to be spoken to communicate effectively between the two girls. Quinn rose up off of the bed over to Rachel, who held out the item of clothing in front of her so that Quinn could just put her arms through. Quinn turned, now face to face with Rachel. The brunette carefully tied a knot at the front, watching Quinn to ensure that she didn't hurt the girl. 'Thank-you.' The taller girl's voice resembled sandpaper; it was scratchy and mono-tonal, but that didn't stop the meaning she had behind the words coming through on her face.

'Anytime' Rachel beamed as she thought about their old rivalry, but now, Quinn was probably her best friend. 'I'm going to hug you now, okay?' Quinn chuckled slightly- she had never expected to hear Rachel say those words to her. Something inside of her found it adorable, the way she kind of states it but makes sure that you are okay with it first. But, this was different to the times Quinn had witnessed Rachel saying the line to others; this time, Rachel seemed to be hugging her before even asking the question.

'Come here you.' The blonde stepped forwards, wrapping her arms warily around the shorter girl, not wanting to get blood on Rachel's clothes. Quinn let herself be engulfed by the way Rachel smelt- something about the soft yet striking scent relaxed Quinn, making her want to stay like this forever. And then she remembered the fact that it was Rachel in her arms, which made her longing thoughts even stronger. 'I will never forget this- what you have done for me.' Quinn spoke, leaning down to place a soft kiss on Rachel's head. The brunette instinctively raised her head as Quinn removed her lips, her heart banging for some unknown reason. Quinn felt her skin burn as she got lost in _those _orbs, watching as the smaller girl's cheeks gained a certain pink tinge. Rachel held Quinn closer, unsure what the emotions running through her were, but she liked them. Something though, caused her eyes to fall on Quinn's lips- where Rachel's eyes stayed until she had those perfect lips etched into her memory. Quinn knew she was blushing as she smiled a real smile- this was starting to become quite some night. The pair leaped a mile apart as they heard a knock on her door.

'Rachel, honey?' Quinn listened to the man's voice coming from the other side of the door.

'Yes daddy?' Rachel opened the door slightly before replying.

'There is someone on the phone for you- one of your friend's dad or something, apparently she is here.'

'Yeah, I was about to come and speak to you about that sorry.' Rachel turned, opening the door wide now revealing Quinn who was stood awkwardly trying to hide her worry, 'I'll be back up in a moment.' Rachel rushed downstairs, leaving her father still stood in the entrance to her room. Rachel's small father with tanned skin smiled brightly to Quinn as he pushed his glasses back up his nose which was very much like Rachel's. The man then raised his eyebrows, pulling an expression as if to say _'trust her' _sarcastically in a joking way. His features fell into a smile once more as he left the tired looking girl to return to his study.

'Hello?' Rachel spoke surprisingly confidently. Rachel listened to the man speak on the other end of the line. Rachel's next words were harsh, 'YOU CAN'T MAKE HER! She is her own person, you can-' She listened once more before replying lowly 'Fine, but don't try any funny business- remember I _will _tell if you don't let her stay.' Rachel sighed, 'I'll go and get her.' Rachel ran up the stairs, the phone clutched in her hand, covering the receiver as she walked back into her bedroom, where Quinn was now sat on the floor, her knees pulled tight to her chest- Rachel could have sworn she saw tear stains down the girl's face. 'Are you okay to talk to him?' Rachel closed the door behind her once more, as Quinn pulled herself up off of the floor.

'Let's just get this shit over with.' Quinn muttered barely audible as she took the phone from tanned hands. She didn't say a word to that man, she didn't need to- he knew when she was on the other end as he spoke at her. As Quinn passed the phone back to Rachel after hanging up, Russell's final words echoed through her mind_ 'You have one week'_. Rachel threw the phone down onto her bed,

'Ready to meet my parents?'

'As long as they're not some evil mass-murdering trolls.' Quinn tried to put her father's words out of her mind.

'I'll have you know that in fact the gentlemen of the Berr-'

'Rachel, chill... I was only joking.' Quinn laughed, remembering how seriously she had said those words.

'I know!' Rachel poked her head forward, poking her tongue out at Quinn.

'I hate you mini- Barbara!' Quinn's tiredness came through as she talked, as her words had started to become slurred.' Rachel frowned,

'You hate me?' Quinn cocked an eyebrow, not being led in by the other's acting skills. 'You do know I'm only pretending, right?' Rachel asked Quinn who hadn't spoken for a little while.

'Duh! Do you really think I'm that much of an idiot?' Quinn challenged, placing her hand on her hip. The two girls' had a visual contest until they burst out laughing- this seemed to be becoming a habit in their conversations. 'I've got to hand it to you though- your acting skills aren't_ that _terrible.' Rachel's chocolate orbs sparkled at the compliment.

'I must say you are quite the actress yourself.' Rachel shifted her weight nervously as that slipped out of her mouth.

'Really?' Rachel looked back up to Quinn, her smile increasing as she noticed Quinn blush, 'I mean, you've never seen me act before.'

'I see you do so every day at school.' Rachel couldn't communicate what she had tried to to Quinn, quickly adding, 'I don't mean that in a stalker-like fashion, I mean, er, you- you alway-'

'I know what you mean.' Quinn smiled. 'And thank-you; people rarely say nice stuff about me.'

'Well they should.' Quinn snapped her head back up, hazel iris' meeting sincere brown ones, boring into her soul. Rachel cleared her throat, worrying if Quinn was feeling awkward. Quinn read this sign, choosing to put an end to the silence.

'So, I thought you were taking me to see your dads?' Quinn held out her hand, pleased when she felt Rachel take it. Rachel dragged Quinn willingly along to her fathers' study where the two men were sat- the smaller tanned man with glasses which they had met earlier and a taller, more athletic looking man with dark skin- having a mini- argument about what color the tiles should be in the downstairs bathroom which they were currently in the process of doing up. They were both wearing male versions of the clothes Quinn always used to see the diva in- at least she knew where the brunette got it from now.

'Daddy, Daddy,' Rachel smiled at each father in turn, 'this is Quinn Fabray- she will be staying for the next few nights if that is okay?' Rachel pulled Quinn in front of her slightly, their hands still locked, but Rachel couldn't remember when Quinn made their fingers interlock- or had she entwined them herself? She didn't even know, nor did she care, she was happy.

'Hello, it's nice to meet you both.' The Berry men were slightly shocked by the strong raspy quality of Quinn's voice, but more so over the fact that there was a Fabray in the house. The two men eyed the blond who looked as though she had been dragged through a bush backwards, before setting their attention back to Rachel, and then finally to Quinn.

'May we speak to Rachel alone please?' The darker skinned man asked in a calm and even yet unfriendly tone.

'I'll wait outside.' Quinn turned to Rachel, only letting go of her hand when she absolutely had to. Quinn closed the door behind her, letting out a heavy breath- it seemed quite obvious that she wasn't welcome here in the men's point of view. Her heart sank a little at the thought.

~/*\~

Rachel stepped out of the room happy that that conversation was over with, yet Quinn wasn't outside like she said she would be.

'Quinn?' Rachel called bubbly down the hall, but the sound of music to her ears soon silenced her. As the brunette approached her bedroom, the beautiful music was slightly louder. Opening the door, she was met with the sight of Quinn at her up-right piano she had received for her birthday. The music was truly gorgeous with a heart-breaking undertone, but the gifted girl seemed so engrossed by the music, that Rachel didn't have the heart to do anything other than staying in the doorway, listening intently. Quinn was disturbed from her trance as the song ended and the sound of clapping filled the air.

'Your talents continue to amaze me.' Rachel swung slightly on the door that was still in her hands.

'Thanks.' Quinn didn't turn around as she answered quietly.

'Why do you like it?... Music, I mean?'

'I guess it is just something beautiful to get lost in and shut me away from the rest of the world... to drown out the shit-hole that is life.' Rachel felt the need to convince Quinn that life was better than she thought, however she decided to listen to Quinn's words instead.

'Play another, please. You're really talented.' Rachel asked shyly. Quinn's fingers automatically returned to the simple black and white keys as another piece of music filled the child-like room. Slowly, Rachel made her way towards the centre of the room, sitting on the edge of her bed taking in the harmonic sounds as she closed her eyes. A solitary tear dripped down the pianist's face, her eyes also shut as she played out her emotions. The tune was repetitive, however each time, the notes sounded different, as each key had a different meaning every time it was pressed, like a whole new language. Rachel opened her eyes, the sight of Quinn making her tear up slightly too. Rachel simply smiled before asking

'What were you playing?' Quinn turned to face the other girl properly answering;

'Videotape; by Radiohead... It sounds very different with vocals and other instruments.' Rachel yet again just smiled gently as she nodded, noticing how Quinn's voice cracked as she mentioned the song, not knowing the meaning it actually had to the musician. Music was something that was just so real and raw to Quinn, yet she was allowed to be in her own state of mind at the same time. It wasn't about singing to convey fake emotions learned through the lyrics, nor was it about the applause; it was just the music, there in black and white. Rachel laughed internally as she processed this- their interests in music couldn't be any more different; Rachel 'needed applause to live', hoping to draw crowds in and attention to her whereas Quinn wanted to shut off the world allowing the music to be the only living thing. Applause- that struck Rachel's mind, drawing her hands together to clap.

'You had me in such a trance that I didn't even realise I hadn't cheered you.' She noticed Quinn's face flushing as she looked down nervously- yep, their addiction to music couldn't be more opposite.

'Do you play?' The shorter girl was a bit startled by the sudden question leaving the other's mouth.

'Not really.' Rachel glided over to join the blond at the piano. 'I know the basics for like vocal warm ups and such, but not technically. I would like to though.'

'Do you know chords?' Quinn replied almost instantly.

'No.' Rachel sort of asked, wondering why Quinn was asking.

'First lesson of the day,' Quinn reached down, grabbing Rachel's left hand in her own, guiding her fingers on the keys in order to make Rachel play the correct chord. 'Simple C major.' The sound of the instrument underlined their voices just right. 'Let me teach you to play something,' Quinn reached across to now take Rachel's right hand in her right too. The paler girl guided tanned hands across the cool keys, Quinn playing as though she would normally, but instead Rachel's hands were just like an extension of Quinn's. 'Recognise it?'

'Of course!' Rachel beamed, watching their hands graze the instrument, 'I'm Not That Girl from the one and only 'Wicked'.' The taller girl nodded her reply whilst Quinn passed Rachel's left hand in her own to lock their fingers together. Both girls breathed a sigh of contentment, wishing life could just stay like this forever. 'Urghh!' Rachel groaned as she heard the doorbell ring. 'I'll be back in a minute.'

'Okay.' Quinn stood up from the piano and sat on Rachel's bed as soon as the brunette had left.

Rachel threw the door open as soon as she knew who it was.

'We're here to see Quinn.' Santana informed Rachel as she stepped into the smaller girl's house. Mercedes followed just behind her, dumping a tray of cookies down on the nearest table. 'We brought cookies.' Santana eyed the stairs.

'Thank-you.' Rachel smiled awkwardly.

'Where's Quinn?'

'She's in my room,' Santana immediately started pouncing up the stairs, 'but I don't think it would be a good idea to see her.' Rachel called after the girl who had disappeared out of sight, rolling her eyes to Mercedes. 'How did you know she was here?' Rachel queried.

'Well, Santana will be Santana.' Mercedes' tone altered as she continued, 'And anyway, we figured that you would bring her back here if something is going on? What is happening? It is nothing serious is it?'

'No, she'll be fine.' Rachel studied the ground as she lied, 'You don't need to worry.' Mercedes looked defeated as she followed Rachel up the stairs.

~/*\~

Santana found Rachel's room relatively easily- the good star on the cream door was quite a large clue. The Latino pushed open the door, her breath hitched as she saw the blonde curled up on the bed.

'Quinn?' Even Santana, as tough as she seemed, needed glue to try and keep her together and to stop the tears from falling as she studied the sleeping girl before her.

**Note: Thank-you so much for reading! Sorry for any mistakes etc...- what with the voting issues I was up until five to six (I live in England) and so I probably missed things when I checked :/ Please, please, please keep up your awesomeness and review- I'd love to hear what you think and also please let me know if you want me to continue or not? You guys are the best! Almost forgot- THE FABERRYNESS IN GLEE! Words can not describe my love... Also, I am basing Rachel's dads on the way they were in the photo in the pilot (i don't get why they din't just use the same actors?) Adios! Und schöne Woche! Auf Wiedersehen :) Xx**


	20. The Broken Girl

**Note: HEEEYYY AGAIN! I am so so sorry I haven't updated, I won't bore you with an explanation though, so please accept my apology? This took me 4 weeks to write due to my lack of motivation all of a sudden for some unknown reason which is so annoying! Anywhoo, I want to thank all of you who reviewed last chapter, even though it seems so long ago! And thank-you to those who have alerted, favorited and generally for just reading! I hope you like this chapter! :)**

_**Me. No. Own. Glee.**_

The fragile looking blonde was curled into the foetal position on the bed, her hair matted and splayed across the sheets. This was the part that got to her though, Quinn's once flawless face was covered in bruised skin. Her lips and one of her eyes seemed slightly swollen- the Latina could have sworn that she saw patches of blood scratched across her head. The girl's face was tensed into a pained position as her cheek rested upon a tear stained patch of the mattress.

This wasn't right, this wasn't Quinn. The Quinn Fabray they knew never faltered with her exterior and interior masquerade and her ice cold demeanour could send chills to anyone with a glimmer of light and a small spark of hope. This wasn't Quinn, this wasn't right.

'I'm not waking her,' Santana snapped round to Rachel and Mercedes- when had they gotten there? 'She really needs to sleep.' the shortest of the three teens stated.

'We understand,' Mercedes smiled, yet it didn't reach her eyes. She looked over to Santana who simply nodded her response. The Latino walked in cautiously as to not wake Quinn up.

'What happened to her?' Santana's eyebrows knitted together as she took a closer look.

Breathe. Rachel, breathe. She didn't have a clue how to get herself out of this one.

'These people broke into her house.' Rachel found herself using the same fake story as Quinn. 'They beat her up pretty bad, explaining her house. She couldn't stay there and so her parents found a new house so that she didn't have to. But, they then lost the house and so Mr and Mrs Fabray are tying up some lose ends with the house and stuff and so Quinn will be staying here for a few days.'

'Shit, Q.' Santana muttered. 'Is she okay though?'

'I hope. She said she is fine, but I still want to get her checked out.'

'Good. If she wants I can always try and get my dad to have a look at her.' Santana offered.

'Your dad?' Mercedes questioned.

'He's a doctor and shit like this seems normal to him.'

'She even looks in pain whilst sleeping.' Mercedes stated. 'Have you given her anything to help?'

'No, but last time I did she overdosed.'

'Wait, what?' Santana's dark eyes snapped up to Rachel who was now standing over the opposite side of the bed.

'She had a headache, and misread the dosage, but she was fine, so it's all okay.' Rachel babbled.

'It wasn't on purpose was it?' Santana's concerned eyes bored into Rachel's.

'No, no! Just an honest mistake.' Rachel knew she shouldn't have mentioned the whole overdose thing in the first place.

'Because I swear that if she... If she has tried to kill herself what with everything, I swear I'll never forgive you.'

'Wait,' Mercedes interjected, 'define _everything_? Has she told you something?'

'Quinn hasn't told me anything, but believe it or not, Q is one of my best friends and so I know when something is not right. And anyway, you can't exactly call her life normal.'

'One of your best friends, eh?' Quinn croaked, her eyebrow raised above her one opened eye, before opening the other.

'I... er...' Santana searched around the room looking for a reply.

'Well you are one of mine.' Quinn smiled slightly. 'And before any of you ask, I would never try and kill myself, I'm not that stupid and selfish.' Rachel swallowed; she was the only one who knew the seriousness of Quinn's situation. She figured that Quinn having suicidal thoughts wouldn't be out of the question.

'Are you sure you're okay though?' Mercedes asked seriously. The blonde nodded. 'Well just remember that we are all here for you always. Every one of us in glee are your family- you don't have to go through anything alone okay?' Again Quinn nodded, there was pain present but it hurt less than if she was to speak.

'Thank-you.' She smiled through the slight sting in her throat.

'Okay, well, me and Mercedes are going to leave you to rest now as we are probably really not helping.' Santana spoke lightly. 'And we need some sleep considering we need to be up for school in a few hours!' Damn. Rachel had completely forgotten about the fact that time was still passing.

After saying their goodbyes to Quinn, Rachel escorted them to the door.

'One more thing, earlier you said her parents?' Santana questioned just as she stepped outside.

'Yeah, why?' Rachel, slightly confused, replied.

'Her parents separated, didn't you know?' Mercedes asked. Rachel just shook her head, her eyebrows knitting together.

'Her father cheated on her mom and when she found out she kicked him out- this was sophomore year though, Quinn only found out about it after regionals, literally as she went into labor. Last thing I knew they were finishing finalising their divorce.'

'Oh my god.' Rachel tried to fit this new piece of information into the puzzle she was starting to piece together.

'When she told me, she seemed pretty distraught about it, but it was sort of odd; it seemed as though she was beating herself up about it, blaming herself.'

'Well, thanks for everything; for dropping by and generally for today.' Rachel sighed.

'Anytime.' Santana chuckled lightly.

Santana and Mercedes left after saying goodbye to the small brunette, leaving the two girls at the Berrys'. The two men of the house were busy in the kitchen- the shorter at the table completing a cross word whilst the taller man was busy at the stove.

'Girls, supper is served.' The shorter man called up the stairs in a joking waiter-like fashion. It had been about twenty minutes since Mercedes and Santana had left, and the two men were pretty sure they heard the familiar sound of 'F.R.I.E.N.D.S' coming from their daughter's room. The two girls appeared in the kitchen a few moments later, greeted with warm food placed at the table. Quinn felt her stomach churn at the sight of food- she already felt very sick, even when she wasn't moving. Both girls sat down in their places as did the Berry men who sat opposite the two teens.

'Thank you Mr and... Mr Berry.' The blonde nodded her throbbing head towards them in thanks.

'Please, call me Hiram.' The smaller man spoke, smiling as he readjusted his glasses up his nose.

'And I'm Leroy.' The other smiled showing his gleaming white teeth in contrast to his darker skin.

'Thank-you Hiram and Leroy.' she smiled slightly uneasily.

'No problem Quinn.' said Hiram.

'Daddy, Daddy, may we start? I for one am _starving_!'

'Sure, sweetie,' Leroy turned to acknowledge Quinn too, 'Eat up!'

Rachel tucked straight in, polishing up her vegetables in a matter of minutes before moving on to the rest of the plate, whereas Quinn sat there awkwardly shuffling food round her plate.

'Are you okay honey?' Leroy spoke to the blonde, however her head remained ducked, 'Quinn?' Quinn's head snapped up at the mention of her name, unknowing that conversation had even been happening.

'Pardon sorry?' she quirked an eyebrow, but in a tired and confused manner rather than her typical menacing arch.

'I just asked if you were okay, you haven't eaten anything in ten minutes.' Quinn looked over to a clock she could hear to the side of her. She studied the clock which read 'Cookie Time' on it, just like the one on Friends, which Quinn had come to realise the family had a certain like for. The hands read quarter to two am- had it really been that long?

'Quinn?' Leroy asked again, concern etched across his face.

'Yeah, I'm fine thanks, I just feel a little ill.'

'Okay, well the food may help a little, you may just be hungry?' Hiram offered. Quinn picked up a slice of carrot that she had had on her fork for several minutes. Breathing deeply, she swallowed the piece of food.

'Quinn are you okay?' Rachel called after the blonde; Quinn had immediately jumped up and ran to the bathroom which was connected to the kitchen. Rachel followed her into the nearby room, where she found Quinn crouched with her head over the toilet. 'Quinn?' Rachel placed a comforting hand on the other girl's lower back.

'Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about... You know.' She motioned towards the toilet.

'It's fine. You sure you are okay?'

'I still feel a little sick but, I'm better for throwing up.' She half- joked in her reply.

'Good.' Rachel smiled as she laughed with the other girl.

~/*\~

Rachel and Quinn returned to the youngest Berry's room, after Rachel finished off her dinner. In the meantime, Quinn sat there, politely sipping at some water as they all shared meaningless conversation. The blonde apologised many times for not being able to eat anything, but she thanked them still.

Rachel turned after shutting her door, 'Sorry about my dads- they create very awkward conversation at times.'

'You have no need to be sorry, they're lovely.' Quinn beamed from where she was sat on Rachel's bed, however, her unshed tears did not go unnoticed.

'What's wrong?' The brunette spoke softly as she approached the taller girl.

'Nothing,' she smiled, shaking her head, 'Your dads are just really, _really_ nice.' Rachel sighed gently as she wrapped an arm around Quinn, unsure of what to say.

'It is going to be okay, you know? We are going to get you through this together, okay?' Quinn nodded as she snuggled into the warm embrace, finally feeling the familiar tickle of a single drop of moisture leaking from her eye. 'Now let's get you to bed, you must be exhausted!' Rachel exclaimed in the overly joyful tone that Quinn was coming to love. 'Are you sure you are going to be alright sleeping in the other room?'

'Yeah, it's fine.' Quinn shook her head slightly in disbelief, her eyebrows raised; the girl who was once her enemy was offering a room in her own house to her. 'Thank-you so much.'

'Anytime.' Rachel stood up leading Quinn to the guest bedroom.

~/*\~

Rachel sat waiting patiently on the spacious double bed, whilst Quinn got ready for sleep in the bathroom. Rachel had found Quinn out a new toothbrush along with all of the spare toiletries they keep aside for guests. Quinn exited, yawning deeply as she pushed the door gently to close it a little.

'Come on sleepy head.' Rachel laughed as she stood up, pulling the covers back for the blond. She lazily climbed in, tucked in soon after by Rachel who was sat kneeling on the bed by her side. Quinn turned on to her least painful side which was also where the brunette was sat. 'Now you get some sleep, okay?' Rachel smiled warmly down to the other girl who nodded in response. The shorter girl leaned down, enveloping Quinn in a warm hug, squeezing her shoulders lightly before slowly pulling back slightly.

'Thank-you for everything today.' Quinn leaned forward, placing a small kiss of thanks on to the other's tanned cheek. Rachel softly smiled once more to the blonde, squeezing her shoulders before climbing off the bed and heading towards the exit.

'Sleep well, Quinn.' Rachel turned off the light and shut the door after taking one last look at her _best_ friend.

Quinn heard the door close, as she released a breath she didn't realise she had been holding. There were three significant things which she had learnt today; 1: Nothing stays secret from Rachel Berry 2: Her Father can not stand up to a 5ft 2" 17 year old girl, 3. Vegan food has many varieties, as informed by Hiram and Rachel and 4... Well four significant things; She may have feelings for one Miss Rachel Berry. Shit.

~/*\~

Rachel wandered lazily back to her own bed across the hall, landing on it with a loud thump. The past 24 hours had been crazy. And worst of all, she knew. She freaking knew, but she couldn't tell anyone and she couldn't betray Quinn's trust either, not now they were actually friends. As she stared at the ceiling, tears clouded her vision until she eventually drifted off to sleep.

Meanwhile, Quinn lay facing the wall battling the visions to stay away for at least a little while. She winced a little as she pulled a pillow next to her, cuddling it as she swiftly curled into a ball. Despite everything today, the one emotion that surrounded her was guilt. She didn't mean to, but now she has fucked up Rachel's life too. She would never be the same bubbly little Berry again and it was all _her_ fault. She knew that part of that glimmer of hope and innocence that made the girl's warm chocolate eyes sparkle brighter than the Sun would be lost forever. And it would be _her_ fault when that bright infectious smile was never quite as big and carefree. The last thing she wanted to do was to allow someone else to get involved, physically putting their life in danger and the last person she would ever want to be them was Rachel- this was all getting so wildly out of control. Control. That was something she _never_ felt. It was the one thing she needed the most. And there was only that one thing that almost gave her that.

Silently, she pulled back the covers and sneaked into the bathroom. Eventually, she found a brand new razor lurking in a box of spare bits and bobs in the cupboard. Without hesitation, she plucked the blade from its packaging and held it to the top of her left forearm. The calm before the storm. Her eyes wandered around the red marks scaring her arms; only for a second did she doubt what the hell she was doing to herself, but in a moment she pushed it to the back of her mind and just tore up her skin. She tried not to think about anything, focusing on the darkness of the inside of her closed eyelids. But as she continued to viciously rip, a brunette came into focus. Quinn snapped open her eyes, to only find herself alone in the brightly lit bathroom. But she couldn't shake Rachel from her mind. Knowing the hurt she would see on her face if she found out what she was doing. The hurt she knew Rachel would blame herself for. As a trickle of a tear slipped down her pale cheek, she gripped the frozen blade in her hand.

'Shit.' she breathed heavily trying to suppress the pain she felt in her right hand. Looking down, she noticed the sharp implement buried deep in her palm, blood pooling around it.

'Quinn.' she heard a gentle knock distantly.

'Just a moment.' she whispered, hurriedly hiding the blade back in the cupboard. Immediately, she put on the tap harshly to clean the blood dripped around the sink.

'Quinn?' she heard closer now as the bathroom door was knocked on.

She yanked down her sleeves, keeping her bleeding right hand in a fist up the sleeve to hide it.

'Are you okay?' the brunette, concerned asked as Quinn opened the door.

'I'm fine,' she smiled, 'why wouldn't I be?'

'I heard you swear...?'

'I just am a bit bruised and then I moved awkwardly causing unexpected pain. That's all.' Quinn smiled, walking back over to the bed.

'Promise?' Rachel followed Quinn back to the bed.

'I promise.' Quinn climbed back into the small double bed. Rachel sat crossed legged facing Quinn on the bed.

'So how come you're still awake?' Rachel asked as she studied the obviously tired girl.

'I couldn't sleep. What about you?' Quinn replied, enjoying the fact that Rachel cared about her this much to not care about disrupting her strict sleep schedule.

'Why couldn't you sleep?' Rachel asked concerned.

'I guess I must be overtired.' she wanted to tell Rachel how she virtually never sleeps, how she cries herself to sleep if she has not already passed out due to her bleeding arms or that day's beating. But she couldn't, she couldn't seem weak. 'Hey, I asked you too!' Quinn mocked in a fake angry voice.

'Oh, I just, I heard you moving around in here- it woke me up- I'm normally quite a heavy sleeper though.'

'Okay...' Quinn laughed slightly uneasily, unsure of what to say, 'Well don't let me be keeping you from your sleep.'

'I doubt I'm going to get much more now.' Rachel commented.

'Why?' Quinn questioned, concerned.

'It's half three in the morning!' Rachel exaggerated. 'Have you not slept at all yet?'

'No, but I was almost asleep before I went into the bathroom, so... Yeah...'

'You must be shattered!' Rachel commented. Quinn simply shrugged. 'I'll leave you now- I don't want I prevent you from sleeping as that is what you really need right now.' she laughed lightly. She climbed off the bed in one swift motion before turning over her shoulder, 'If you want you can come into my bed? It may help you sleep.'

'No, because then you won't sleep.' Rachel noticed slight desperation in the blonde's voice; it was as if she really wanted to but wasn't going to let on.

'Well, I honestly don't mind, but t-'

'Please, Rach.'

'Okay.' Rachel smiled, hearing the pleading coming through in Quinn's voice. 'I am just over the hall remember, if you do change your mind.' The brunette walked over to the exit, swearing she could see tears in the taller girl's eyes as she spoke softly

'Thank-you.'

'Remember one thing for me Quinn, please. You _are_ loved. And you will _always_ be _loved_.' A small trickle of liquid broke free as Rachel watched it slowly slide over the other's pale face.

Quinn watched as Rachel disappeared into the darkness, the moon only bright enough to light her silhouette until she had vanished, just as the happiness she brought with her did too.

~/*\~

Rachel woke, looking at her clock, it was only 4:49 am- she had only been able to drift in and out of sleep since returning from the guest bedroom. Rachel was finding it impossible to get the girl who occupied that room out of her mind. She needed to go check on her, she had to. Only then would she be able to sleep, knowing that Quinn was okay.

She found her toes softly making contact with the carpet as she climbed off her bed almost soundlessly. Her feet found her way through the shadows of the night to the guest bedroom. However, as she became ever nearer, the painful sound of soft whimpers became more prominent. _Now_ she was worried.

The brunette inhaled and exhaled slowly as she attempted to mentally prepare herself for the heartbreaking next few moments that was to come; she could already feel a scratching at her heart. Knocking on the door, quietly but clearly, Rachel whispered, 'Quinn?'. There was no reply, but one of Rachel's characteristics certainly was not patience, and this waiting was eating her up on the insides. 'Quinn, I'm coming in.' She whispered. No reply- just the soft cries answering. Rachel opened the door effortlessly, closing it immediately behind her. The dim light from the en suite creeping in from under the door was enough for Rachel to find her way to Quinn's figure which lay in a ball on the right side of the bed, facing towards the wall. Without thinking twice, Rachel glided round to the other side of the bed and pulled back the covers before slipping into them. Although Quinn was facing away, she could imagine the way that Quinn's face was disfiguring as she cried at the horror that she was in. She pressed the front of her body to Quinn's back, slipping an arm around the blonde's waist to comfort her. 'It's okay... Shhh... I'm here.' Rachel soothed, her voice only cracking once. She placed a light kiss onto the other's shoulder 'It will all be okay...'. It was then that the tears leaking from tortured green eyes became heavier, and Rachel even allowed herself to shed a few of her own. It was in that moment that she decided; no matter how long it takes, she will do whatever she can to fix the broken girl.

**Note: Sooooo... Whatcha think? :/ Thank-you so much for reading! And I hope you liked it! Sorry for any mistakes! Please let me know what you thought and if you want me to continue- I expect I will have like no readers left now, but please let me know if you are still out there somewhere reading this? Ah, so just watched Glee and... Quinn... :'( And on that note, have a good week! Xx**


	21. Breathe

**Note: Hey! I did try to get this up sooner but with GCSEs and competitions and dancing and such I have been left with no time! Anyway, thank-you so much to those who reviewed, alerted or favorited last chapter and to all of you for just still reading this! Sorry for any mistakes, I wrote most of it at 4am and some of it following 3 all nighters and so some stuff may make no sense! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter!**

_**Yeah... So... 'Glee'=not mine. All clear :)**_

Quinn groaned as she squirmed under the covers. She winced slightly as she snuggled further into the warm pillow next to her. The constant ache of her body sent her non-chronological flashbacks of yesterday's events, but the rest was just a blur, whilst the throbbing of her wrists reminded her of what she had done to make it all seem okay. '_The fucking bullshit._' Quinn thought as she subconsciously nursed her wounds. Her current light state of mind was soon darkening as negativity started to shadow her. For now though, she tried not to think, tried not to cry, and just tried to breathe. She cuddled in closer, finding comfort in the warm... Body? Quinn quirked open her left eye.

'Hey sleepyhead.' Quinn heard the brunette greet warmly next to her.

'Shit!' Quinn half-screamed as she jumped up viciously. 'I'm so sorry Rachel...' Quinn stuttered as fast as she could.

'Why are you sorry?' the brunette asked, now sat up, truly confused by the situation.

'I-I forgot tha... That it was you there...' Quinn managed to force out through her loss of words.

'Oh, Quinn, it is fine- it was probably me. I am known to be a cuddler in my sleep.' the brunette smiled goofily. 'Now come back here?' Quinn stumbled lazily back over to the bed, the pain of the sudden movement starting to take over. The brunette offered her hand to the sleepy blonde who immediately slumped back into the pillow.

'So, how come you are dressed?' Quinn mumbled as she looked at the girl who was currently wearing sweats.

'I have to leave for school in half an hour, so I figured I would get ready and just change last minute. You know, I have compromised my morning rituals for you?' Rachel smiled.

'I'm sorry.' Quinn's voice dropped.

'I'm not.' the two smiled deep into each other, letting the warmth of the others upturned lips spread through their bodies.

'You didn't have to do that for me.' the blonde ducked her head. Rachel reached out, tucking a piece of the blonde's hair behind her ear.

'You are always worth it,' Quinn could have sworn she was blushing by now, 'remember that.' she simply nodded with large, admiring, vulnerable eyes. Rachel's hand remained lingering on the other's pale skin, stroking her thumb backwards and forth in a soothing motion. 'I never want to lose you.' Rachel spoke softly, boring into hazel eyes.

'I promise never to leave you, Rachel.' Quinn replied without hesitance. 'And even if I tried, I just couldn't- you don't know it but you mean so much to me. You have always meant so much to me. I promise to never abandon you... Ever.' Quinn reached up and held her hand to hold Rachel's which was still tracing delicate patterns on her soft cheek.

'Rachel!' LeRoy knocked on the door. 'You have twenty minutes until you need to leave!' Neither girl wanted to pay any attention, they just wanted to stay locked in that moment, with eachother's eyes so full of promise and hope. 'Rachel!' She chose to ignore him again. Quinn held on to Rachel's hand tighter as the smaller girl spoke.

'I don't understand how you were able to go through so much, all this time alone.' The blonde slowly began to turn away from Rachel in order to try and hide the shame creeping into her features. Tears of guilt rose in her eyes as Rachel continued 'You must be so strong, never faltered, never even let on.' 'Where are you going?' The brunette asked as Quinn stood up and started moving quickly towards the bathroom.

'I need to get ready for school.' Quinn spoke through the sobs she was yearning to be able to contain.

'Rachel!' She heard her dad call louder.

'Okay, I'm nearly ready!' she shouted back, before following Quinn immediately in order to prevent her from closing the door. 'Wait Quinn, please?' she placed a soft hand onto Quinn's upper arm. 'Please can you stay home just today, please?' Quinn did not turn around, but she communicated to Rachel whilst looking at their reflections through their eyes in their reflections in the mirror before her. 'Please?... For me..?' Quinn shook her head as she spoke,

'I'm going in to school, I'm fine.' she shifted her gaze as she spoke those last few words, hating the fact she had to lie to Rachel.

'Stop with the lies,' Quinn was taken aback by Rachel's sudden outburst, 'please. I _know_ that you are not fine. So please? Just for the day?'

'You don't understand Rachel,' Quinn turned to shut the door, 'I'm sorry.' Rachel put her foot in the door in order to stop the blonde from closing it.

'Then help me to understand.' Rachel insisted, removing her foot. Quinn squeezed her eyes slowly shut, furrowing her eyebrows, before lowering her head. She closed the door slowly, causing the dark wood to be within an inch of the brunette's face.

The blond locked the door almost immediately. Quinn sighed, letting her unshed tears fall. Walking over to the sink, she retrieved the blade she remembered from before she went to sleep.

Rachel was sat, her back leaning against the door, and her arms resting on her slightly bent legs. She tilted her head back, releasing a long, shaky breath.

'I'm sorry.' Rachel heard the whisper through the door.

Quinn took the small metal implement to the skin on the top of her right forearm. She watched as the blade painted delicate, intricate lines of crimson on to the skin she had not marked those mere hours ago. Once the canvas was filled, she placed the blade next to the sink, the red blood prominent in contrast to the white surface. The blonde pulled out a wad of tissues, pressing them firmly to her arm in order to stop the bleeding. As she pressed, the sharp pain was present again as it felt as through the blade was still in there, whilst she let the soothing pain to take over. This was her private escape, allowing her soul to run free from it all.

Quinn slid down to the floor with her back against the door, practically unknowingly mirroring Rachel. She let out a long sigh before replying 'I need to make everything else normal.' She spoke aloud, only just audible to the other girl.

'What?' Rachel asked, confusion etched across her features.

'You wanted to understand.' Quinn breathed, 'So I want you to understand too.' She removed the soft paper from her arm, giving her chance to inspect her still bleeding wounds. 'School is the one place where I can pretend that none of this happens, where I can be that person with the perfect life.'

'Nobody will think any less of you just for one day.' Rachel offered.

'But that is one day less of life I get to live.'

'It shouldn't be like this Quinn; it shouldn't be this way.'

'But it is how it is. Nothing can change that.'

'We can change it, Quinn.' Rachel was turned facing the door now on her knees. 'All we need to do is tell someone, even if it is Mr Schue, or even my dads. Someone just needs to know, someone who can help. And if you don't tell someone, then I just might have to.' She then heard the familiar click of the door lock as it opened slightly, revealing Quinn on her knees, just visible through the opened crack. Her sleeves were pulled tight down, bunched into her fists, and tears lined her face.

'Please don't tell anyone. _Please,_ that is all I ask.' The blonde pleaded.

'I can't promise not to; I hate seeing you like this, knowing what he does to you, knowing that next time it happens, he may make you never live the same again, or even worse, you may not live at all. And I can't bare that. I care about you Quinn, and I know you think that nobody gives a damn about you, but they really do- especially me. And I'm not losing this battle Quinn. I'm not losing you.' Water was leaking from both pairs of eyes now. Quinn looked to the floor, more droplets of water running through her eyelashes before splashing the tiled floor. Rachel opened the door a little more, just wide enough to fit her hand through to offer to Quinn. The taller girl took the tanned hand, however, she gripped on to it with her fingers only, in fear of what might otherwise be revealed.

'Don't let my shit excuse of a life effect you. Please.' Quinn pleaded. Rachel simply shook her head as she squeezed Quinn's hand a little tighter. 'So how about a compromise? I will go into school, but I won't go in first thing. How about that?'

'Okay.' Rachel smiled. 'What do you have first period?'

'Math. You have a free period, don't you?'

'Yes, but I normally spend it in the-'

'in the library, normally in the theatre section, or if not, you go to Between the Sheets to pick out a selection of trial songs for glee club, which both showcase your perfect pitch, vocal range and emotional depth.' Quinn laughed. 'I should _not _know this.'

'How do you?' Rachel too began to laugh.

'I have my sources.' Quinn joked, winking. Both girls stood up simultaneously before walking over to the bed hand in hand. Quinn climbed back under the covers, cautious not to aggravate any of her already painful injuries. Rachel sat next to Quinn, her torso propped up against the headboard. 'Stay with me?' One glance into those vulnerable, almost child like, hazel eyes was all it took to make Rachel nod in agreement, laying back down on to her left side, mirroring Quinn, putting their faces mere inches apart.

'Can I ask you something?' Rachel asked, slightly hesitant. Quinn simply nodded in response. 'Why were there pregnancy tests in your bin? Are you.. Are you...' Rachel hesitated, '... Pregnant?'

'No... No. I was telling the truth about them being from when I had Be- when I was pregnant. I don't know, it is just like that is the only part of _her_ I have left.' Quinn diverted her eyes from Rachel's comforting gaze. 'I don't want to let go of my daughter, not yet.' Rachel tried to process all of this in her mind. With all of these recent problems, the brunette had forgotten all about little Beth; she felt her chest tighten further as she realised that not only was she having to deal with all of this crap at her home, she also had to mentally about Beth. She realised that Quinn still wasn't over her, nor would she expect her to be, but also that the baby had left Quinn just completely fucked up. Those were the only words she could find to describe it, even though she wasn't one to curse. She breathed deeply, her head aching slightly with all of this emotional stress whilst the blonde sighed as a mental argument began about what to tell Rachel- she didn't speak for a few moments until she had decided to tell her the truth, 'I... I thought I was again.' She closed her eyes as she mumbled those difficult words. The tests... They told me I was and I was so,_ so _ scared.' Quinn's voice was thick with tears she was trying so desperately to hide. 'It was in that moment that I couldn't take anymore of it, of all this shit.' The girl was angry, angry at herself for what happened, angry at _him_, at Puck, at _everyone_, but that just made her self-hatred grow more for getting mad at everyone. 'That was the moment that I decided I couldn't take anymore of this. I had just had it... W-with everything. I didn't want to have to wake up the next day knowing that it was just another day of utter shit, or at all... Ever. And I had tried so hard to be perfect... I tried so hard to sort everything out, but I couldn't. And I knew that no-one would care if I was gone... My father would be mad that he no longer had his punch- bag and that would be all. Everyone else would just pass over the thought... Only pretending to care long enough to make them seem human. To make _me_ feel human. And if that was what I could feel, even just for a split second, I didn't care for the consequences no longer. I wouldn't have been around to take them. So...' Quinn took another shaky breath, daring a chance to look back to Rachel to see of she was still following. 'So I... I just...' Quinn closed her eyes and focused on her breathing, determined to sound strong for just her next few words at least. 'I tried to end it all.' Quinn started rushing through her words as she too broke down with Rachel and cried, 'But then S-Santana called. She sort of new what I was doing. She doesn't know like you, but she knows that I am in a bad place. When she realised what I was trying to do, she started shouting at me in Spanish,' she chuckled slightly at the memory, 'And then she did even louder in English. Until then I could have sworn it was impossible for someone to create a whole paragraph of curses and let alone have the need to say it. But I needed that. I needed her to wake me up and rescue me from... Well... from _me_. We were on the phone for hours, until she was sure I wouldn't do anything stupid. That was why she was so scared the other day that I had reached that point again.'

'I'm so, so sorry. I had _no_ idea.' Rachel had tears streaming down her face, as she looked up with complete empathy.

'No, I was an idiot. And how were you to know? But anyway, I went to the doctor a little while after and they confirmed it. It was another little girl. But... There were... _Issues_. The baby had to be a-aborted. What I felt then, it was like nothing I had felt in a while. I felt as though suddenly this weight was taken off my shoulders and I felt... I was happy. I was so scared about this little baby, my baby girl- I couldn't bring it into this word. She deserved so much more than she would have ever got, she deserved a family, a home... Love.'

'Quinn...' Rachel breathed, her tear stained face mirroring that of Quinn's. Rachel brought her hand up to smooth the other girl's hair, suppressing her inner want to do nothing more than just hold that girl tight to her until all of the darkness in this world had disappeared forever. Quinn's tone dropped as she became deadly serious with her next words,

'That is why I _can't_ go to the hospital _ever_ again, understand? They were already interrogating my parents, asking where the bruises were from and why I had old and new injuries. I was the one who lied. I could have gotten out of it all then, but when my parents looked at me horrified, I just _had_ to. And I know it sounds stupid; the fact that my parents were frozen, yet I still saved their asses, but you can not understand how it feels unless you have been there. Felt the inner fire inside like I did. They had police officers, child workers and everything in. I just told them I was badly bullied, but the school were dealing with it now, and they didn't see through me, thankfully. I prayed desperately through the pain that no-one would find out and I still do, even though I don't even know if I believe anymore. And it never happened. But... But it makes me think that someone finding out was the best thing that ever happened to me, because it brought you to me.' Quinn released the sobs that she could no longer refrain from emitting. The brunette still led there, her mind and heart in pieces as she tried to pull herself together to then piece together the broken mess of a girl that lay before her. She kept her fingers running through blond hair for only a moment longer before she brushed her hand down to wrap her arm firmly around Quinn's waist.

'Was it... Was it _his_?' The other girl simply nodded as her body wracked with sobs. Rachel held the girl even tighter, ensuring that she could make the other girl know that she was grounded, that she was safe in her arms. Rachel soothed her own breathing as she opened her mouth, singing softly;

_When I look into your eyes,_

_I can see a love restrained,_

_But darlin' when I hold you,_

_Don't you know I feel the same?_

_'Cause nothin' lasts forever,_

_And we both know hearts can change,_

_And it's hard to hold a candle,_

_In the cold November rain_.

She watched as Quinn's eyes slowly began to dry and her breaths became smoother, as she continued;

_We've been through this such a long long time,_

_Just tryin' to kill the pain,_

_But lovers always come and lovers always go,_

_And no one's really sure who's lettin' go today,_

_Walking away._

_If we could take the time,_

_To lay it on the line,_

_I could rest my head,_

_Just knowin' that you were mine,_

_All mine._

_So if you want to love me,_

_Then darlin' don't refrain,_

_Or I'll just end up walkin',_

_In the cold November rain._

Rachel continued to lull. This was the first song that came to mind right now, knowing that this was the thing she could do best to comfort the other girl. The other thing was to just hold her, lay there and hold her in her arms, never letting her go.

_Do you need some time...on your own?_

_Do you need some time...all alone?_

_Everybody needs some time..._

_On their own,_

_Don't you know you need some time...all alone?_

_I know it's hard to keep an open heart,_

_When even friends seem out to harm you,_

_But if you could heal a broken heart,_

_Wouldn't time be out to charm you?_

_Sometimes I need some time...on my_

_Own,_

_Sometimes I need some time...all alone,_

_Everybody needs some time..._

_On their own,_

_Don't you know you need some time...all alone?_

The brunette noticed as Quinn's softened eyes began to flutter closed, yet she didn't stop;

_And when your fears subside,_

_And shadows still remain,_

_I know that you can love me,_

_When there's no one left to blame._

_So never mind the darkness,_

_We still can find a way,_

_'Cause nothin' lasts forever,_

_Even cold November rain._

_Don't ya think that you need somebody?_

_Don't ya think that you need someone?_

_Everybody needs somebody,_

_You're not the only one,_

_You're not the only one._

Rachel held Quinn even tighter. Their bodies fitting perfectly together. She pulled her close, enclosing the blond, protecting her from the dark shadows that kept trying to engulf her and from the taunting ghouls that haunted Quinn's tainted mind, tearing her down from within. The air fell silent as they both fell in to a trance- like state. The silence was soothing, and only the soft sound of the two of them breathing laced the air. Breathing. The simple thing had never sounded so beautiful as it did right now. Breathing... Simple. Just to breathe.

_**Song= 'November Rain' by Guns N' Roses, but Rachel is singing a softer, sweeter version :)**_

**Note: Thanks for reading! :) Please, as always, let me know what you thought about this chapter and if you want me to continue. I may start posting on my profile to let you know how long it will be until an update as at the moment I have no clue sorry! (And also sorry about the lack of what actually happened in this chapter- I was going to include the whole day, but then it started writing itself and I wanted to get this uploaded as otherwise it would be doubly long until I did. So, yeah, Sorry!) Thank-you again! And I hope you have a good week! Xx**


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